Dear Parents, Carers, Students and Pupils, 

One thing about ArtsEd that never ceases to amaze me is how quickly the end of term seems to come around. It really does seem like it was just a few weeks ago that we were welcoming all the new students and pupils to the School and starting rehearsals for the Open Evenings, and suddenly we’re in production week for The Music Concert, and it’s our first Day School audition day next Friday!

It’s been a very exciting term filled with wonderful performances and academic successes that serve to remind us all why ArtsEd has cemented its place as the number one performing arts school in the country. We’ve also had a thoroughly enjoyable TAP event last week, which raised a fantastic amount for a number of very worthy causes; a huge thank you to everyone involved and I’m already looking forward to the next event!

From January Year 11, 12 and 13 will be involved in a range of PPEs (pre-public examinations, or what we used to call mock exams) and modular tests, so I know that revision will be part of the break, and we wish all the students and pupils the very best of luck with all their examinations. From the start of next term we will also be seeing a number of productions taking shape, including ‘Violet’ which is our Musical Theatre entry for The National Student Drama Festival 2018, as well as all the preparations and rehearsals for The Dance Show, so it’s another exciting term ahead!

In January we will also be starting our ‘Them and Us’ project. ArtsEd is part of a national organisation called PiXL, which is a network of 1800 plus schools across the UK who work together to share best practice in education. ArtsEd was in fact the first independent school to join PiXL, but there are now over 30 independent schools in the group, along with a number of grammar schools all looking to be ‘even better’. ‘Them and Us’ is a programme that has been designed to teach and promote the notion that every one of us has a part to play in making the world a more understanding, positive and fundamentally kinder place to live by following the three principles of:

√ Living without harming others
√ Doing acts of kindness
√ Showing respect for others

We will be fully committed to joining this project, and I look forward to telling you more about it and sharing how we demonstrate these three principles on a daily basis in our School, and in the wider community. There will also be events where parents and carers can get involved so look out for those too!

All that is left for me to say is Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all the pupils, students, parents and carers who make up the ArtsEd family. I look forward to seeing you at our Academic Review Day at the start of next term.

Adrian Blake
Headteacher

Dear Parents and Carers,

ArtsEd pupils and students hit the ground running in September and this newsletter offers just a glimpse of some of the varied activities and projects that took place this term. I was thrilled that the recent TAP (Teachers’ and Parents’ Association) event, ‘Tap into the Groove’, raised close to £4,000 – half of which goes towards the School’s Hardship and Bursary fund and the remainder towards upcoming TAP projects. Keep an eye out for news early next term regarding the next TAP social!

On behalf of the School, I would like to thank you all for your very generous support and wish you and your family a restful break and a fantastic New Year.

With very best wishes,

Julia Collura

TAP Chair
Director of CPD and Careers Education

By Liz Miles (Year 9 TAP parent representative)

The last Wednesday in November saw TAP’s new social calendar get off to a flying start with ‘TAP into the Groove’: a lively fundraising evening in aid of the school’s Hardship Bursary Fund and other TAP projects. Hosted at the wonderful Hogarth Club, the event kicked off with welcome drinks and saw more than 100 ArtsEd parents plus teaching staff being treated to a soiree of great food, drink and live entertainment. The club’s in-house café, ‘Crucial’ laid on delicious curry bowls and music was provided throughout the night by some of the school’s hugely talented Sixth Form Students and the wonderfully versatile 'Bigger than Mary'. Energetic sets saw a lively dance floor throughout the night. The TAP raffle proved immensely popular and a live auction with some amazing prizes (very generously donated) saw some splendidly competitive bidding. The event was a hugely successful way to go into the new social year, with other TAP events already in the planning.

By Declan Miele-Howell (Year 8)

PGL was really fun. I loved hanging out with my friends and making new ones! My favourite activity was definitely the giant swing, which was a group task in which two people sit in harnesses and the rest of the group use ropes and pulleys to lift the two people up. When they’re high enough, one person on the ground holds them still with yet more ropes and pulleys. The last step is for one of the two people on harnesses to pull a string next to them, which lets them go. I enjoyed this the most because it felt like I was on a rollercoaster!

Another activity I enjoyed was the zip wire, which used pulleys and ropes to lower you to the ground. I loved this because it made me feel like I was in ‘Mission Impossible’. Lastly, I loved the campfire; we roasted marshmallows, sang songs, and ran around. Overall, PGL was really fun, and I would recommend it to any future Year 7's or Year 8's.

*Although children often refer to us as "Parents Get Lost", the company actually takes its name from the man who started it all in the 1950s - Peter Gordon Lawrence: http://www.pgl.co.uk/en-gb/about-us/the-pgl-story/the-pgl-story

By Jack Goodwin-Freeman (Year 9)

On Monday after lunch, we visited the Danehurst Brent Lea Sheltered Housing to help educate some of the over-60s on how to use mobile phones and gadgets, as even we find them tricky sometimes!

Two of the important apps we showed them were FaceTime and Skype, as several members’ families lived in different countries. I chatted with Zeita, who moved to London in 2005 because she found her home country of Nigeria too hot for her and bad for her health. Unfortunately, when Zeita left Nigeria she also left her family behind and was not in frequent contact with them. We taught her how to use FaceTime so every night she could call her grandkids in Nigeria and keep contact with her loved ones.

We also had a chance to talk about our school, our drama and dance courses.

Overall, the Year 9 pupils who visited the centre saw the trip as an eye-opening experience and a very worthwhile intergenerational project, as we got to listen to the over-60s share their experiences of when they were at school, which were very different to ours at ArtsEd!

By Louis Moffat (Year 11)

On Friday 24 November, Year 11 ventured to the ExCel Centre for the Skills London Exhibition, the UK's biggest jobs and careers event for 15-24 year olds and their families. The event attracts over 30,000 visitors and 200 exhibitors including top employers, colleges, training providers and advisers. This event provides visitors with the opportunity to discover careers through interactive, inspirational activities and demonstrations, and helps young people visually bridge the gap between what they enjoy doing and what they could potentially do as a career. The bustling crowds were complemented by enthusiastic career representatives who couldn't help but force their occupation onto you (mostly with brochures).

There was a huge range of careers being shown ranging from media to construction. I built a small wall with bricks and cement in the building section and then serenaded unsuspecting students in the music section; this is just one example of the diverse range of activities. However, there was a very obvious bias towards construction in the exhibition, which shows how this exhibition is perhaps conditioning us to fit around the perception of what is needed – possibly led by the Government? This is only one viewpoint, and not necessarily heavily informed, but the bias was clear to see.

However there was an extensive range of careers represented and nearly every occupation was covered. Overall the visit enriched our knowledge, and increased our understanding of what’s possible and how we could achieve it. This exhibition was a reminder that our future is in our power!

By Parisara Boonrungreung, Science Teacher

Every Wednesday lunchtime Year 7 and Year 8 pupils take part in Science Club. It is a place for pupils to learn about all scopes of sciences from chemical elements to biological systems to the environment. It is a relaxed and fun environment for pupils to go and practise their scientific skills. Pupils either work in groups or on their own.

To date, pupils have completed over 20 experiments, sometimes they are linked with what pupils are currently learning or sometimes they are wacky! We have completed half a dozen dissections; let off a handful of rockets at Chiswick Green (paper ones that is); tried and failed at making slime; produced toothpaste fit for an elephant and ended the term on our annual Chemistrees! Here’s Diva modelling one of them on the right.

By Leigh Brennan (Second in English)

Before starting in September at ArtsEd, I was invited to attend the Paris trip with Years 9, 10 and 11. Not only was it a great way to get to know everyone, but every single day was packed with French culture, history and many coach-bound musical renditions!

It must be said that it was really lovely to see how the year groups interacted with each other during the six days. Highlights definitely include: the boat trip along the Seine with students pointing out landmarks and enjoying the acoustics under the bridges; the exciting pandemonium of Disneyland with the added magic of a 16th birthday; speaking to students in the Père Lachaise Cemetery at Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrison’s graves and Mr Gordon’s famous speech about La Commune de Paris.

The visit to the French school was invaluable. Students really engaged with the opportunity to use their French with native speakers and it was really interesting to see how French schools differ from British schools.

In all honesty, I don’t think I’ve ever seen as much of Paris in my life. It was a fantastic opportunity to get a better understanding of the students at ArtsEd and it was great to see them outside of the classroom setting.

Until next year, au revoir.

By Oliver Hawkins (Year 13)

The Film and Media Studies teachers Krishna Dubasiya and William Reiss, took Year 12 and Year 13 students to the wonderful and architecturally beautiful city of York to attend the ‘Aesthetica Short Film Festival’. On the first morning, we walked towards York Minister and then split off into small groups of three and four. We had an hour to watch films before attending the first master class, ‘Digital Technology Democratized Film Production’ led by editor Jaime Estrada-Torres who worked alongside Stanley Kubrick in ‘Eyes Wide Shut’. The talk addressed changes in technology and how those changes have affected the job of an editor in the film industry.

After this we had another talk from a member of the visual effects team from Industrial Light & Magic, who are a company that were set up by George Lucas and initially made to improve the visuals in the Star Wars series. The talk was about ‘Rogue One’ and the visual effects behind the creation of the city of Jedha. After the talk, we went and watched as many films as we could that covered these genres: animation, comedy, drama, thriller, experimental, fashion, documentary and advertisement. My two favourite short films were ‘Salt’ and ‘Rated’. ‘Salt’ had a surprising twist at the end, which juxtaposed the rest of the storyline. ‘Rated’ had an engaging concept that revolved around a rating system that people were given above the age of eighteen.

The next day we continued watching films, but also had another masterclass from the Head of Screen Acting at RADA. The talk, ‘Getting the Right Performance from Actors’ was very interesting and suggested how directors need to influence actors from day one of the process. After watching some amazing films and experiencing three fascinating masterclasses, it was time to get some rest for the journey home on the Sunday. However, before that we needed to get one classic group photo by York Minster to signify our trip to York – so we did.