FROM YOUR HEAD TEACHER

Dear Parents and Carers,

In the melee of a busy school's life, it can be all too easy to miss the nuance, the small detail, the subtleties as to what makes TKA unique. So many fantastic opportunities are extended to our pupils every day. As the rhythm of life at TKA now plays out on a daily basis, the extraordinary becomes just what we do. One only has to look at the range of experiences pupils and parents have had the opportunity to be engaged with over the past 2 weeks, to get a true sense of what I mean.

Last Wednesday, our stellar Inclusion team hosted the Curly Hair project, reinforcing our commitment to high quality ASD provision and support for families within our local community. Last Friday a group of our pupils had the immensely positive experience of meeting with Leyla Hussain. She is a multi-award winning campaigner against FGM and for women's rights. This important opportunity for our pupils allowed them to meet with an individual who dedicates her life to promoting the fundamental British values of tolerance and respect, of freedom of speech and women's independence.

This week pupils have been to the West End to enjoy a performance of Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night, whilst others attended Pimlico Academy as part of the UK Mathematics Trust team challenge. Well done to our awesome foursome! In Science lessons as part of STEM week, much fun has been had through experiments using liquid nitrogen, supplied by the National Physical Laboratory. Meanwhile the fantastic cast and crew of our next school production work quietly away, learning their lines, preparing the sets and stitching together the beginnings of our Drama department costume collection. Well done to all who have participated in these unique experiences.

We really are blessed to have a great team of staff and pupils all willing to go beyond , taking full advantage of the experiences provided. 97% of all pupils participate in at least one enrichment activity per week, a statistic we can all be really proud of. I will be following up the elusive 3%!

Last week I mentioned behaviour outside of lessons as a topic I would be writing to parents about more extensively. I intend to do so this coming week once I have explored some ideas with the School Council on Monday.

It appears that our glimpse of Spring this week will be replaced at the weekend by Storm Stella, on its way over from the US. Bring out the umbrellas and enjoy the weekend.

Kind regards,
Sophie Cavanagh

Upcoming Dates for your diary

Monday 20th March - Half day training day - pupils leave at 1.05pm. All lunches have been credited.

Wednesday 22nd March - Year 7 parent subject progress meetings - 5-8pm. Online booking available soon.

Friday 24th March - Red Nose charity day - pupils may wear a red accessory with a donation.

Week beginning Monday 27th March - Cultural Week.
Money raised this week will be donated to the East Africa Crisis via the Disasters Emergency Committee
https://www.dec.org.uk/appeals

Wednesday 29th March - Year 8 parent tutor progress meetings - 5-8 pm. Online booking available soon.

EASTER HOLIDAY - Monday 3rd April - Friday 14th April

INSED (school closed to pupils) on Tuesday 18th April

Tuesday 25th April - meeting for parents involved in the Year 8 Spanish Exchange 6-7pm in School Hall.

Wednesday 17th May - Wales residential trip parent information evening 6-7 pm in the School hall

CHANGE of DATE - Early finish for pupils at 1.05pm on
Wednesday 10th MAY
(not Tuesday 9th May)

Recruiting Now

for several key roles for September. Please visit the website, if interested, and spread the word.

National Portrait Gallery trip

On the 9th of March a group of pupils went to the National Portrait Gallery in London. We looked at the amazing portraits there, the history behind them and met Leyla Hussein. She is a women’s rights activist with very strong beliefs which have got her where she is today and her image is the latest addition to the gallery.

Leyla talked about FGM (Female Genital Mutilation), oppression to women and girls and equality which was interesting and a slightly uncomfortable subject to talk about even though I see why it’s important to know. I think Leyla is very inspirational and we enjoyed listening to her views since she has experienced oppression and FGM.

Overall I really enjoyed the trip and would definitely do it again. The gallery and Leyla were both really interesting and Leyla got us thinking about how people are and should be treated.

By Callum - 8 Mega

http://leylahussein.com/

British Science Week

This week was British Science week and at TKA, to embrace the sciences, we had an amazing demonstration with liquid nitrogen. It is one of the coldest substances, which has the power to "burn" a hand if kept on for too long. Of course, safety is core, so all teachers demonstrating wore protective gloves. We had a few demonstrations, including an impact shattering flower, and a nail drilling banana!

This was a truly great experience and one my peers and I will not forget anytime soon! This was an amazing way to incorporate fun science and education.

By Ismaeel M - 8 Tera

Over the past week I have been designing a device that could transfer the energy of vapourising nitrogen into usable kinetic energy. The original idea was that it could fire table tennis balls but due to a lack of resources, the tube had to be made for a smaller sized ball. The main idea was to put some liquid nitrogen (-196 degrees C) into a container with a valve attached to it. The valve would build up pressure, and once it is released all of the pressure would escape pushing the marble out of the tube. Sadly the device did not work as the liquid nitrogen cooled down the bottle so much that it would no longer vapourise the nitrogen. On review I would like to place the bottle in a water bath next time.

By Cameron - 8 Peta

UKMT Team Maths Challenge

On Tuesday 14th of March, four members of Number Ninjas went to Pimlico Academy to participate in the United Kingdon Mathematics Trust team competition. We took the train from Kingston Station to Vauxhall Station, and whilst we were on the train we looked at some hard problems.

For example: there was a sequence which consisted of the numbers 14, 91, 62, 53, 64, 96, 48. What is the next number? The answer is 11, and this is because if you look at the first three numbers, you see a 1, a 4 and a 9. Then you take the next four numbers and notice that they are 16 and 25. 1, 4, 9, 16 and 25 are all square numbers. So, the sequence of square numbers is 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64, 81 and 100, and you work out that the answer is 11.

When we got there we warmed up with ten challenging problems. Later on we were told about the plan for the day; it started with the Group Challenge, followed by the Crossnumber. After that, we were treated with a nice lunch break; then we did the Shuttle Race, and finished with the Relay Race. All the problems made us think really hard about to solve them.

Overall, we came 6th out of 27 teams, which was pretty good considering every other school had Year 9 pupils on their team.

By Sahil and Alistair

Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night time

On Thursday we went to see 'The Curious incident of the dog in the night-time' with Ms Wade and Mr Stenning. When we were walking to the theatre we were all very excited to watch the amazing story of Christopher and his journey and how he fixes his own problems on the way.

Our bags were checked and we entered the theatre. The best things about the show were: the clever design of the cube as a set, the toy train looked really realistic, the ladder on the back wall and the lights. At one point you couldn't see anything apart from Christopher being carried as an astronaut. At the end Christopher was given a really cute puppy and was able to have a relationship with his dad again.

Overall I loved going to the theatre and I would definitely want to see a West End show again.

By Harley - 8 Mega

Social Skills Group for Children aged 8-12 on the Autistic Spectrum.

The group is for children aged 8-12 on the autistic spectrum who are in a mainstream school. There are two groups running every Tuesday (during term time), 4:00pm-5:00pm and 5:15pm-6:15pm at the Moor Lane Centre.

New referrals are being taken for September 2017. Find out more details and how to register here

EHCP Information Workshops

The Independent Support Partnership is running free workshops providing information to parents and young people who live in Richmond, Kingston and Hounslow boroughs on Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs).

The first is on Thursday 23 March: 2:45pm-4:45pm: Transferring from Statement to EHCP. Find out more and book a place here

Please see the flyer below about the TeachLOCAL event taking place tomorrow. This is a collaborative teacher recruitment event, being run in partnership with other schools in the boroughs of Richmond and Kingston. Do spread the word to anyone who you think might be interested.

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The Kingston Academy · The Kingston Academy · Richmond Road · Kingston Upon Thames, London KT2 5PE · United Kingdom