Parents News 2012/2013 - Issue 1

Chiswick School, Burlington Lane, London W4 3UN. Telephone 0208 747 0031

Also available online at www.chiswickschool.org 10th September 2012 - Issue 01Student Services Direct Line 020 8747 6655 to report your child ill or late.

D i a r y D a t e s

Continued inside...

SeptemberThu 13th

Years 7, 10, 12 photos

Mon 17thAdult Education Start of Term

Wed 19thTarget Setting Day

Tue 25thOpen Morning (09:15 - 10:45am -

by appointment only)Year 8 into 9 Celebration Evening

Thu 27thOpen Morning (09:15 - 10:45am -

by appointment only)

OctOberMon 1st

Year 8 HPV Injections 1

Tue 2ndOpen Morning (09:15 - 10:45am -

by appointment only)

Thu 4thOPEN EVENING

6:30 - 8:30pm Presentations from the Headteacher

at 6:40 and 7:50pm in the School hall.

Your Weekly Newsletter

2012 chiswick Students are record breakers at GcSeStudents at Chiswick School continue to break records in achieving the high-est GCSE results to date for the school. Consolidating a consistent record of excellent GCSE results over the past four years which saw the school rec-ognised as one of the most improved in the country, this year's Year 11 stu-dents achieved a record 61% 5 A* to C at GCSE including English and Maths. An incredible 93% achieved 5A* to C in GCSE or equivalents. A further record was broken in Maths where 81% of stu-dents achieved a GCSE at grade C and above.

There were some astonishing indi-vidual achievements. Three students received 12 A*s and As. Milly Asquith achieved 5 A*s and 7 As, Rajah Nuttaki and Zaki Meddings achieved 6A*s and 6As. Athena Rees and Luisa Charles achieved 11A*s and As, Ruth Clark Wilkins achieved 10, Ashkun Zolfa-gharinia, Charles Habesch, Mark Gve-ro, and Maddy Gardiner all achieved 9 A*s and As. Several other students achieved a row of As and Bs.

Sophie Sweeney achieved her 5 GCSEs with English and Maths and passed her Creative and Media diploma. She will be undertaking an apprenticeship with Chiswick Business Park- Enjoy Work as a maintenance engineer.

The following students whose first language is not English also made ex-ceptional progress and achieved well. Naema Egen achieved a distinction in her Health and Social Care diploma, an A in Photography and she passed her English and Maths GCSEs with grade Cs. Siham Alia Abdalla also achieved a distinction in her Health and Social Care, as well as passing her Maths and English at C grade. A merit in a Sports

have achieved a C in English this year will now have to retake next year. This will undoubtedly affect their A level choices. It seems par-ticularly unfair that the boundaries were moved only for the summer exams meaning students who took the same syllabus in January have gained an unwarranted advan-tage’, said Tony Ryan, Headteacher. ‘We will do everything possible to support our students in gaining the English GCSE they deserve next year and will be addressing the grade boundary issue directly with the relevant examining body’.

english Gradescontinued...

CHISWICK SCHOOL

parent Governor electionsThe terms of office of five parent gov-ernors come to an end on 2nd Novem-ber so the governing body is seeking nominations for these posts. Full in-formation, including who is eligible to stand, what the job involves, the support offered to new governors, together with a nomination form, are being sent home with students. This information will also be avail-able on the school website. Nomi-nations must be received by 4pm on thursday 27th September.Andrew Dodge (Chair of Gover-nors) [email protected]

From medicine to micro pigs - chiswick students are going places!

Chiswick Sixth Form students are cel-ebrating after another excellent set of results. 28% of entries resulted in A*-A grades, exceeding national averages and cementing the school’s reputation for academic excellence established in recent years. 99% of all entries were awarded a pass grade.

Louis Freeland Haynes will be reading Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge having achieved an A* and three A grades. His classmate Pieter Oliver achieved an A* and two A grades and will be studying Physics at Bristol University, a popular choice amongst Chiswick students this year. More A grades ensured that Hichem Bouayed will be reading Medicine at Kings Col-lege London and Jonida Tafilaku will study Biochemistry at Edinburgh.

Level 3 Vocational students also ex-celled with 63% of entries achieving a Distinction or the newly introduced Distinction*. High levels of progression

record breakers continued...diploma as well as Bs in Drama and Maths, together with a C pass in Eng-lish were achieved by Mohammed Thi-ab. These students show that it is pos-sible to achieve well even when starting with a disadvantage. ‘These results show Chiswick is contin-uing to make steps on its journey to be an outstanding school’ said Tony Ryan, the school’s Headteacher. ‘I would like to congratulate all of our students and the staff who taught them, on their hard work and success. We hope to welcome most of Year 11 back into our sixth form. These results confirm OFSTED'S assessment of us as a good school. We will now be redoubling our efforts to make bigger improvements in the coming year.’

to university again demonstrated the value and relevance of these qualifica-tions. Amy Coward has taken advan-tage of the new work-based learning schemes recently introduced and will be using the research skills developed in securing three Distinction Stars in Health and Social Care in a project in-volving Micro Pigs.

The Year 12 pass rate also improved; Christopher Whitehouse led the charge with an A grade in all five of his AS levels. The results also demonstrated the inclusive nature of Chiswick Sixth Form; Masa Milenkovic arrived from Serbia in September and thanked her teachers and the Bilingual Department for ‘their support, advice and encour-agement’; she achieved three C grades and will be sure to improve on these next year as her English develops.

Tony Ryan, Headteacher, thanked the leaving Year 13 students for their con-tribution to Chiswick School: ‘Not only have they achieved academic excel-lence, they have also helped create a culture of success that is resulting in sustained achievement at all levels. As a group of students they are outstand-ing and I have no doubt that they will achieve incredible things as they move on to such an exciting range of pro-gression destinations’.

english Grade boundaries move Affects resultsenglish Language results 10% down on teacher predictions.Chiswick School students achieved re-cord results in spite of the cap on the number of C grades in English which appears to have been introduced na-tionally by OFQUAL, the government’s exams regulator. No Chiswick students entered the English GCSE early as hap-pened in some schools. 63% of Chis-wick students achieved C and above this year compared with a prediction of 74% projected by the department. For the past two years the department has been spot on with its predictions and much of its teaching has been judged outstanding by OFSTED. Had English results this year been in line with pre-dictions combined with our outstand-ing performance in Mathematics, the school would have achieved 71% 5A* to C with English and Maths.

In preparing for the new syllabus be-ing introduced the English department did everything possible to meet the new standards. The board appeared unwill-ing to clarify what standards needed to be achieved to gain a C in the controlled assessment part of the examination ef-fectively leaving teachers to use their professional judgement without sup-porting criteria.

‘Our students achieved excellent re-sults this year. Nearly 50% of all GCSE grades awarded were in the A* to B categories. I am particularly concerned that students who should

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