Issue 8 Autumn Term 2013

AROUND THE PALACE

Welcome
I was delighted to attend the Girls School Association Annual Conference in Gateshead this week. Old Palace emerges at the forefront of todays thinking on the importance of a broader valuesbased education critical to every individuals skills set in the 21st century workplace. I believe it is important to sustain our efforts in influencing national educational debate. On Saturday afternoon we welcomed a number of families to Old Palace. Thank you all girls for your guiding and exceptional contributions to making this such a success. I look forward to welcoming families to the Preparatory open event on Saturday afternoon. I know that girls in Years 4 and 5 are also ready to enjoy a Day of Dance, organised by a Year 12 student.

Arts Award Good Practice centre

Old Palace is proud to announce that we have been awarded Arts Award Good Practice Centre status by Trinity College London. They were impressed by the strong application and delivery of the Arts Award across the school age range. A summary of our achievements to date illustrates this: Arts Award Discover was delivered last year to Years 3-5 Preparatory Dance Company, with 19 students successfully completing the Award. Arts Award Explore was piloted as optional within the Year 6 Expressive Movement curriculum, enabling 14 members of the group to achieve the award. Its success resulted in the award becoming a compulsory element for all future students. Arts Award Bronze has been successfully run for three years and continues to be offered as part of Year 10 Core PE options, and this has now become a popular option for students wanting to continue their study of dance. Last year 16 students completed the award and this year the number is set to double. Arts Award Silver in Year 11, similarly in its third year and offered within Core PE options, saw ten students achieve awards and demonstrate a wide range of participatory and leadership projects. The latter included more ambitious projects than ever before, with students opting to run the annual dance show auditions, deliver Saturday dance workshops at the Preparatory School for Year 4 & 5, and run lunchtime dance clubs. Arts Award Gold, is now offered as part of the Sixth Form enrichment programme, in both Year 12 and 13. Nine students are currently working towards completing the award, which has provided useful addition to personal statements when applying to universities watch this space for some exciting Gold projects coming soon. Old Palace, who is one of the first few centres in the country to be running Arts Award at all the available levels, will now be featured as a good practice model case study on Trinitys Arts Award website. This week our Bronze and Silver students (all 43 of them) had the opportunity to take part in a professional photography shoot organised by Trinity College to gather images for their website and to use on their promotional materials. Ms Lunghi, Head of Dance & Creative Movement, will also be organising an event to share our good practice with other centres running the award within the region and has been asked to present at conferences during this academic year.

Carol Jewell

Children in Need at Nursery

On Friday Old Palace Nursery had lots of fun raising money for BBC Children in Need. Children and staff came to nursery wearing spots, many of them in their pyjamas! All rooms enjoyed special craft activities including making Pudsey masks and spotty pictures. There were also special spotty balloons for sale and everyone enjoyed a whole Nursery dance party in the gym. Thank you to everyone who contributed and 116 was raised for a very worthy cause.

- latest Arts Award news

Artsbox

Arts Award Gold Students Teach In Germany

by Priyanka and Rhema, Year 13
On 24 & 25 October, we were invited by Service Childrens Education (SCE) to conduct a two-day Indian Dance workshop working as dance artists, for our Arts Award Gold work experience.

Old Palace has been selected to be one of the first schools in the country to use artsbox, the new digital tool to support young people working towards Arts Award. Our Bronze, Silver and Gold students will be amongst the first 500 to use the tool which is planned to go live in the New Year. We will be trialling the online digital portfolio tool so that the students can provide valuable feedback and suggest any improvements to be made before other young people across the country are able to use it. Forthcoming Arts Award events Friday 13 December: Still Life at the Old Palace Caf Our first ever Arts Award student-led production featuring work selected and choreographed by Arts Award Bronze and Silver students, will be a cabaret-style performance using the professional work Still Life at the Penguin Caf by David Bintley (Birmingham Royal Ballet) as its inspiration and creative stimulus.

It was aimed at Year 7 and 8 at Prince Rupert School in Rinteln a small town near Hannover, Germany. SCE is a government organisation responsible for the education of the children of service families and Ministry of Defence personnel serving outside of the United Kingdom. We were thrilled at the opportunity and produced a dance workshop plan involving exploring Indian Classical footwork, hand gestures (or mudras), Kathak and Bharatnathyam (styles of Classical Indian Dance from different regions of India) and Bhangra. On the first day, we taught Year 8. Our first shock came when we saw how many boys there were compared to girls! Neither of us had taught this many boys before and we were unsure as to how they would respond to our dance workshop. However, everyone was extremely enthusiastic and we were impressed with how well they picked up dance styles they had never experienced before. We incorporated a lecture demonstration to talk through the differences between the styles and to show the use of ankle bells in Indian Classical dance. We did the same on the second day but with Year 7. At the end of two days of hard work, the two years joined together to perform what they had learned in front of the rest of the school. We performed a duet piece where we had fused Kathak and Bharatnathyam. Following this, Year 7 performed stories they had created using the Indian hand gestures we had taught them and Year 8 performed the classical section of the dance. Everyone gathered on stage to perform the Bhangra section in an energetic finale! We absolutely loved the experience of teaching. We knew it would be two days of intense hard work, but seeing the enthusiasm of the students made it a really enjoyable couple of days and we were very proud of the end result. We would love the chance to do this again.

Celebrating Leadership in Dance: Arts Award Ceremony

involved planning both the creative elements of the programme (comperes, speakers, visuals, films and performance) as well as co-ordinating a large team of helpers to run front of house, technical roles, refreshments and displays of students work. Mrs Jewell opened the evening with a welcome to all parents; Ms Lunghi gave a summary of Arts Award achievements to date; but this is where the staff input ended, and students then took over the presenting, with hosts Priyanka and Rhema doing a magnificent job keeping the pace and engaging the audience. Visuals of key moments from last years dance events provided the background to key speakers sharing their Arts Award experiences, with powerful anecdotes, reflections and messages for parents and peers alike, as they listened to the impact of the activity on their daughters personal and artistic development. Speakers included Hayley and Varsha (Year 6), Onyx and Karis (Year 7); Abigael, (Year 11), who shared a fantastic Prezi presentation giving highlights of her year doing Bronze; Zara and Perpetua (Year 11); Jessica (Year 12) and Holly (Year 13). The evening ended with the screening of a Dance Film produced as part of Arts Award Silver leadership project Cobrastyle; an inspirational dance film produced by Amy Spaughton and Tina Lansdell, with the help of some Year 8 students and filmed in and around London! Congratulations to Keshvi for such a successful outcome - an evening truly enjoyed by all!

On 13 November all students who achieved awards last year, across all levels, were invited to attend a special celebration event to collect their awards. 59 students from Year 3-11 gained awards. The evening was organized by Keshvi in Year 13, as part of her Arts Award Gold Leadership project. This was a huge task and

Latest news from Preparatory

It has been as busy as usual at Preparatory since half term. Year 3 and 5 netballers have represented the school superbly and are enjoying what it feels like to win as well as taking part! I would like to thank Mrs Coster for her commitment to the students in Preparatory. The parental workshop on developing writing skills was well attended and it is so pleasing to have received such positive feedback from those who attended. Staff and students also enjoyed welcoming Mrs Carter-Pegg, one of the school governors, to Preparatory and it was an opportunity to thank her for her overwhelming support. Like the Seniors, students came together for a reflective assembly of Remembrance on 11 November and in the afternoon the School hosted for a Year 5 Maths Challenge for the 2nd year running. It was wonderful to welcome 120 young mathematicians to Old Palace. It was a fun filled, brain teasing afternoon, rounded off by a sumptuous tea in the Banqueting Hall. Ten students from Old Palace represented the school and proved to us just how good they are at problem solving. Congratulations to Irvana, Alexandra, Aminah, Emily, Vishali and Zara for doing so well during the afternoon. We were especially proud of Jessica, Maria, Morgan and Pavi who came in the top four pairs overall.

Palace Group
Just before half term Palace Group students from Years 7-9 met one lunchtime to find out who their mentors would be for this academic year. They enjoyed refreshments and a chat with friends and were delighted that some of the mentors were also able to come along. Inspired from their mentor meeting, a number of the students took the opportunity to visit museums or art galleries over half term. On 8 November, Disha Sharma in Year 7 presented an interesting and informative assembly to the whole of Years 6-7 about her visit to the Natural History Museum. Disha showed photographs that she had taken at the museum and a poster that she had made which included her own sketches. Old Palace looks forward to reporting on other extension projects by Palace Group students.

Junior Palace Singers success

Last Friday, 48 students in the Junior Palace Singers sang at Holy Trinity Church, Wallington as part of the Sutton Music Festival. They won their seven years and under choral class with 90% and an outstanding grading. The songs the students performed were Dreamer and Engine Engine. The students said they had butterflies in their tummies and their hearts were beating fast but they were also extremely excited to be performing! The adjudicator, Benjamin Costello, loved the legato singing and excellent diction in Dreamer and said that the performance of Engine Engine was one of the most delightful he has ever heard or seen which is high praise indeed! The Junior Palace Singers have also won a shield which will be presented at the Sutton Music Festival Prizewinners Concert on Sunday 1 December, 2.30pm at Overton Grange School. The students who introduced the choir so beautifully have been invited to collect the shield on behalf of the school. Many congratulations to all the students who took part and a special thank you the accompanist, Mrs Newlands.

Extra-curricular corner After the success of House Drama, Year 6-9 Drama Clubs will be working on Christmas-themed scenes devising their own pieces of theatre in the run-up to the season. All drama clubs are hugely popular and at capacity at the moment, but there will be the opportunity to sign-up after the Christmas break. The prestigious Palace Players will also be hard at work, preparing for the GCSE and A-Level certificate evenings. They are working on scenes from canonical theatrical works such as A Dolls House and An Inspector Calls. Running Club, run by Kalise in Year 13, is still going strong. Every Tuesday, Kalise and her brave runners flock to the netball courts to partake in fitness training and games, in which the Sixth Formers chase the students from the younger years to get them running. Running Club is still accepting new members and held at 1pm on Tuesdays.

Preparatory Netball team keep on winning

Year 5 have had a busy week with netball fixtures and the week got off to a great start with a 10-1 win over Essendene Lodge. Some excellent passing and skill work into the circle by Pavi, Honey and Faith allowed Alice and Pavi to have numerous shots on goal. Following the success against Essendene, the A team went on to gain another victory, this time against Cumnor House winning with 6-1. Well done Old Palace!

Charity at Preparatory
This year students at Preparatory are getting involved with the Samaritans Purse organisation and Operation Christmas Child. Shoeboxes containing gifts are sent to needy children in Romania, Serbia, Bosnia and other impoverished countries. The students have enjoyed preparing a box of gifts to send to another child at Christmas. It gives them an opportunity to help those less fortunate and is a way of demonstrating their service to others. A few years ago a similar project was completed and well over 100 boxes were sent to other children - it would be wonderful if this target could be bettered.

Coke buggies
Year 6 have made Coke Can Buggies part of the Creative Design course. Previous tasks included using the saw, hammer, soldering iron and pillar drill.

Steel pans lesson...for staff by Fiona, Year 9

On Wednesday after school, there was a steel pans session - for staff! Helping them were five students from Year 9 Zayna, Brinelle, Emily, Maya and Fiona, along with Amy from Year 7. It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience for all the staff and of course for us students it was very interesting to see which teachers were talking when they were meant to be quiet! The staff learnt the tune very well and by the end everyone was playing together making some great music!

Tae Kwon-do by Jessica, Year 10

On Sunday 10 November, I went to Guildford as I was participating in a Tae Kwon-do competition. I entered in the patterns and sparring categories. First up was patterns and both boys and girls were put into the same category. I got through to the second round but unfortunately I finished 5th out of 21 participants and missed out on a medal. However things improved when I participated in the sparring. I won the competition and was awarded the gold medal.

Assembly presentation by Camille, Year 13

As part of my final Design and Technology A-Level project, I decided to give an assembly to Years 6-10 to tell them about my idea. My final product is a house point collection system inspired by a combination of the London Tube map, marble runs and Rube Goldberg machines. I enjoyed presenting my final ideas and have already had feedback from lots of students as to what they would like from the product. It was especially nice to see a variety of students from different years taking such an interest in something that affects their school life. I am looking forward to the final outcome and hope it will become an exciting part of the school community and house competition.

Year 7 netball by Sherkai, Year 7

This season has been a success despite the cold weather. The Year 7 Netball team have worked so hard and put in a lot of effort during matches resulting in a victory in both games. We won 11-0 against Woodcote High, followed by a 12-1 win over Thomas More. In other results, Year 9 recorded a fantastic 16-2 victory against Shirley High and the Year 10/11 netball team have been involved in some exciting fixtures too. They enjoyed a 9-6 victory over Edenham, drew 12-12 in a pulsating match against St. Andrews, and suffered narrow defeats to LanFranc (10-9) and Virgo (10-7).

Wood Turning Club

Wood Turning Club has been a great success this term. Students start with a hard wood blank (Oak, Mahogany, Teak, etc.) and after drilling and gluing, items are mounted on a pen turning mandrel on the wood lathe. By using sharpened chisels students are taught to shape the wood. As the wood spins around at a high speed students carve a little off at a time until they shape it to their desired grip. Items are sanded and buffed with a sealing wax before being pressed together. Students will leave with a finished pen that they have each turned on the wood lathe.

Parental workshops
Letters went out this week for the Practice Makes Perfect workshop being run by Mr Hemmings on Thursday 12 December. All parents from Reception to Year 13 whose daughter currently learns an instrument, whether in school or out of school, are welcome to attend. Ms Lunghi will be leading the Help - My Daughter wants to do Dance parent workshop open to all parents at Seniors on Tuesday 26 November. Both workshops will run from 6-7pm. Please check your emails for the letters or pick one up from the office.