Boys’ School · Salman Filli (8SJB) Azeez Amode (9NB) Bessam Boulfoul (10MSK) Sufian Miah (11GXC) Lasai Kusi-Ghent (12RB) ... Central Foundation Boys’ School is very

CONTENTS:

This issue of the newsletter will be focussing on how Central Founda-tion Boys’ School interacts with politics and the local community. With the school council having been recently elected we look at what they have already discussed and also look to the upcoming Is-lington Youth Council Elections. The newsletter also details the De-bate Team and their success in making political debate relevant, en-joyable and accessible for all students. Finally, the newsletter con-tains other news about recent events in the new academic year, such as festivals, workshops and the BBC filming a news programme on the site, involving Sixth Form students.

Politics: School Council 02

Politics: Debating 03

Open Events 04

Short Story Winner 05

Art & Tech Curriculum 05

Think Forward 06

Shakespeare in Schools 06

Alcohol Awareness 07

BBC visits school 07

Key Dates 08

Central Foundation

Boys’ School

Newsletter

OCTOBER ISSUE 2013

THE

ISSUE

PAGE 2

In September, elections took place in school to form three new councils for Key Stage 3, 4 and 5. Each Year group has seven councillors - one from each form.

By having a council member in each form, every pu-pil has a representative they can speak to who can then raise any issues at the Year and whole School council meetings. They will be meeting at regular intervals throughout the year.

The first meeting focussed on ideas for charities which the school council wanted to support while the Sixth Form are creating ways to raise money for their chosen charity. Students are also being asked to identify projects they want to work on in school.

The school council regularly meet to represent the student body

Year 7 Year 8 Year 9 Year 10 Year 11 Year 12 Year 13

Umar Yahya (7AZ) Joshua Asiamah

(8CO)

Mohamud Abdulahi

(9DM)

Enny Majekodunmi

(10BG)

Jason Mayala (11MR) Med-Amara

Janneh (12IM)

Waseem Al-

Abdullah (13RC)

Wojciech Stzalka

(7CJB)

Abdulazim Saud

(8EG)

Taef Ahmed (9EJ) Mohamed Abaas &

Dean Rowe (10GW)

George Riley (11KH) Nahid Uddin

(12IM)

Wasim Iqbal

(13RC)

Max Roxburgh (7CL) Andre Deen-Swaray

(8EH)

Munkasir Choudhury

(9FW)

Mohammed Faez

(10HS)

Atef Chowdhury

(11MW)

Taiga Asada

(12SC)

Alexey Markov

(13RC)

Ezekiel Adesanya

(7GT)

Saeed Hersi (8RJ) Darrell Kyezu (9KA) Pleurat Hadziu (10HM) Jelani Osama (11IC) Otto Sumray

(12EKS)

Jacob Ellis (7HKS) Mohammed Khan

(8LN)

Emmanuel Enemuwe

(9ML)

Rayhannur Rohman

(10JGS)

Omar Adam (11TM) Safaa Seghir

(12NDP)

Abdul-Razaq O’Ba-

logun (7LVA)

Salman Filli (8SJB) Azeez Amode (9NB) Bessam Boulfoul

(10MSK)

Sufian Miah (11GXC) Lasai Kusi-

Ghent (12RB)

Riyadh Miah (7SMP) Abubakar Buew

(8SXB)

Osama McGowan

(9PP)

Tahmid Rahman (10RG) Hamid Anwar (11SF)

Politics

OCTOBER 2013

School Council

Islington Youth Council

Year 12 student Taiga Asada will be standing for election in the Is-lington Youth Council on 27th No-vember. The council is comprised of 12 young people within Isling-ton who help represent the views of the young and discuss issues affecting children with Islington Council.

2013-14 School Council:

CENTRAL FOUNDATION BOYS ’ SCHOOL NEWSLETTER PAGE 3

Recent success

In the last academic year, Central Foundation won the DebateMate Cup which involved tense debates at University College London (UCL) and the House of Lords.

Already this year the teams have shown signs of expansion. Year 11’s Omar and George debated against, and defeated, teams from universities like Cambridge, UCL and Inner Temple, making it into the top quarter of the university level President’s Cup.

DebateMate

DebateMate is an educational charity that teaches key skills such as communication, teamwork, leadership and complex thinking in the competitive environment of debating.

Through weekly after school clubs, pupils develop ways to express themselves while engaging in social issues they may not have considered before. The charity also aims to leave a lasting impression with participants as many of the skills learnt can set them apart in work and university.

It is proven to have a significant impact on pupils’ literacy levels, while many Central Foundation students have said it gives them confidence and enables them to talk in front of large groups.

DebateMate provides pupils with relatable role models

POLitics

How can I join?

Y 7 Tuesday 3:30-4:30 LRC

Y 8&9 Wednesday 3:15-5:00 Room 21

Y 10&11Wednesday 4:15-6:00 Room 21

Derek Nightingale debating in the 2013 national final

PAGE 4

Throughout September and October the school opened its doors to over 700 visi-tors as prospective pupils and parents came to see our school in action.

Visitors who came on Open Evening were treated to our Design Technology’s cutting edge 3D printer in action, tasty scones from Food Technology, a bowling master class from the cricket team and a rousing rendition of Mr Sandman by the Music School’s Chamber Choir.

Open Morning visitors were given an inside view on how regular lessons are taught as Year 8s and Year 11 prefects toured groups around the whole school. They also shared their own experiences, giving visitors a per-sonal flavour of life at Central Foundation.

Future pupils who are successful in their applications will return to the school a number of times over the following year as part of the school’s transition programme, including Friendship Day and Induction Day before making the big jump from pri-mary to secondary school.

OCTOBER 2013

Open Days

iC6 Emirates Event

The Islington Sixth Form Consortium (iC6) al-so had their Open Evening event in October.

All four schools (Central Foundation Boys’ School, Highbury Grove, Highbury Fields and St Aloysius) that comprise the consortium were represented at the event hosted at Arse-nal FC’s Emirates Stadium. The evening gave a chance for Year 11s to hear about Sixth Form life. It also allowed them to learn about new subjects available to them such as psy-chology, law and creative writing.

Current students acted as ambassadors, talk-ing to Year 11s who travelled from all over London to the event. More information about courses can be found at www.ic6.co.uk

Potential Sixth Formers exploring their new subject options

Open Evening

Year 7s participated in activities like baking for the evening

CENTRAL FOUNDATION BOYS ’ SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Being located so closely to Silicon Rounda-bout, Central Foundation Boys’ School is very aware of the changing demands of the tech-nology industry and it is for this reason we have decided to make a major change to the Key Stage 3 curriculum for Art and Technolo-gy.

Taught as a combined course with an equal amount of time in both departments, pupils now spend time working towards projects that use both disciplines. For example, a project based around making a jigsaw will involve les-sons building towards the artwork on the jig-saw, while concurrent lessons in technology will involve learning how to design jigsaw piec-es and prepare art to be laser cut. This will al-

so allow pupils in Year 7 to 9 to explore other avenues of art and technology, engaging in depth with graphic media and product design at an earlier stage by considering packaging designs and art for their projects as well as starting projects that include electronics, ani-mation and textiles.

By linking these subjects together pupils will be exposed to a wider variety of art and tech-nology disciplines, as well as seeing how they relate to each other and apply to the working world. It will also mean that students have a greater understanding of the different areas of the subjects as they approach their GCSEs and will be able to make a more informed decision about their options in Year 9.

A Twist in the Tale Over the summer holidays Year 8’s Liam El-liot-Brady entered his short story, The Man With One Eye, into a national competition.

The competition, A Twist In The Tale, was open to any school pupil in the UK aged 11-14 but the story had to be 100 words long.

Just before returning to school, Liam discov-ered that his was a winning entry in the com-petition, meaning that his short story will be published for sale later on this year.

For his efforts in creative writing, Liam re-ceived the Headteacher’s Award during a whole school assembly.

Creative Writing Club meets every Monday at 3:15 where pupils have the chance to write their own ideas with the help of published authors.

Other news

PAGE 5

The Man With One Eye

The man with one eye lived on. After all the funerals and hardships. He had been haunting me since the accident, when I was three. I tripped down the stairs into the room of memories; the empty room. He was chasing me and I was trapped. The man with one eye was going to kill me. He held a dagger to my heart. I walked slowly to the mirror. And the man with one eye stared back at me. I couldn’t take it. We had to end it. The mirror was smashed but the man with one eye lived on.

Innovation in the arts

PAGE 6

Think Forward is a programme designed to help young people discover their ambitions and give active support in achieving them.

On 8th October, Year 11s were given an experi-ence of what applying for college and work place-ments will be like. The Blackstone Group, a Think Forward partner, provided students with an au-thentic experience by having them interviewed by Blackstone Group’s human resources .

In preparation, the pupils submitted CVs in ad-vance and had to answer genuine work and col-lege questions. At the end of the event the panel gave general advice as well as specific feedback on how they could improve.

Zane Dabinett said, “I feel greatly reassured for future interviews with techniques I have learnt.”

On 12th November, pupils will perform an abridged version of A Comedy of Errors for the Shakespeare In Schools Festival.

The annual festival makes Shakespeare more accessible by involving pupils in workshops with theatre professionals.

Earlier this year, a team from Google led the boys in team building exercises before exploring themes in the play such as con-fusion, identity and clashing cultures.

The performance will be on 12th Novem-ber, 7pm and is sold out, but another per-formance will take place in December.

OCTOBER 2013

Other news

Think Forward

Think Forward students undergoing mock job interviews conducted by real interviewers from a host of companies

Shakespeare Fest

In early October, five pupils from the Sixth Form’s BTEC Business Studies course took part in a roundtable discussion with BBC Business Ed-itor Robert Peston. After the discussion, which lasted well over an hour, he described the stu-dents as “brilliant at answering the questions about the future of work. They were interesting and intelligent.”

He was particularly interested in asking the pu-pils if they felt the government is doing enough to encourage an entrepreneurial attitude in the country’s youth and if changes in the economy had changed their views towards going to uni-versity, working or starting a business.

They also discussed the advantages of going to a school within walking distance of Tech City and how studying in the shadow of Google, Intel, EE and others affected them.

Oliver Gnandi said, “It was hard being asked questions on the spot, although it meant that our responses to the spontaneous questions were sincere and genuine.”

Other News

Alcohol Awareness

Robert Peston visits

Year 8 Citizenship lessons welcomed Bunhill Community Alcohol Partnership in Septem-ber for some thoughtful discussion and ac-tive learning.

The project, organised by Islington Coun-cil’s Trading Standards team, aims to en-courage young people to consider attitudes towards alcohol. The programme is operat-ing alongside an initiative of training for off-licences. They hope that by working with both groups they can ensure young people don’t try to buy alcohol and businesses don’t sell alcohol to under 18s.

The role-play sessions and workshops are concerned with the consequences of drink-ing alcohol, but mainly focus on the role peer pressure can play.

During the workshops students act out the roles of young people going to parties and other social situations that would involve peer pressure, while practising skills to resist it.

Pupils and mentors taking part in interactive roleplays

CENTRAL FOUNDATION BOYS ’ SCHOOL NEWSLETTER PAGE 7

Oliver Gnandi, Shaun Hylton, Baris Belkiran, Abdul Abdalla &

Theo Farrell were all recorded for BBC News

CENTRAL FOUNDATION BOYS ’ SCHOOL NEWSLETTER PAGE 8

Tuesday 12th November iC6 Parents’ Evening (5-7pm, Highbury Grove) Shakespeare in Schools

(7pm, Pleasance Theatre)

Wed 27th November Islington Youth Council elections

Friday 29th November Founder’s Day (School finishes 12:15pm)

Thursday 5th December Year 7 Parents’ Evening (4-6pm)

Thursday 12th December Year 10 Parents’ Evening (4-6pm)

Tuesday 17th December Festive Variety Performance (7pm)

Friday 20th December End of term (12:30pm)

KEY DATES