JWT Advertising Workshop for Yr 9 & 10

CB Member Bob Boxer organised an amazing opportunity for RPA year 9 & 10 pupils to take part in a workshop organised by the world renowned advertising agency JWT. Below are his comments on the day.

I took a number of my JWT colleagues into RPA last week to run a workshop with 35 year 10 and year 9 pupils.  The session looked at how advertising works,  the type of careers available within the industry, and ways to break into the business.  But, the bulk of the session involved giving the kids a brief – we asked them to develop a product, pack design, TV ad and social media campaign for a chewing gum called ‘Mystery’.  We were with the group for nearly 6 hours, and I have to say I was blown away by the response we were given.  The kids were well behaved, attentive, smart, sharp and highly creative.  They listened intently to the presentations we gave, asked smart and probing questions and brought huge energy to the project work.  Each team made a short presentation in-front of their class mates and my team.  They all did very well and a couple of them included performances that were worthy of an Oscar!!   The winning team presented a very smart product idea that linked seamlessly with their packaging and advertising idea, which, for someone who tries to do that for a living, is never easy to achieve.  Two of the students made a particular impact on us during the day and we have invited them to come into  JWT next term for a period of work experience which they were  both very excited by. All in all a tremendous day, and for me a huge endorsement of the progress that Lesley and her team are making at the school.  I am now encouraging everyone I know locally to get into the school and see it in action, in whatever capacity they can.  Bob Boxer

Amendment to notes - GCSE's

Anne Hahlo, RPA Governor has asked us to send out the following amendment to our notes:

"What Lesley said was that 92% take a minimum of 9 GCSE's.  In fact, around half of these will take a minimum of 10 and this can be up to 14." 

Best wishes, 

Harriet

Notes from CB Meeting.

Dear all, 

Thank you to everyone who attended the meeting last week. A huge thanks to both Lesley Kirby and Paul Hodgins for all of their time in preparing and answering the questions set by the community. 

The meeting was attended by over 30 people who took away some new information and welcomed the opportunity to hear Lesley and Paul. David Fuller of AET also asked us to reiterate the CB structure issued at the last meeting. 

Attached are the notes from the meeting, Lesley Kirby's key points and the CB Structure. 

The Community Board's mission is to help enable communication between the school and the community and support the school on it's journey to being outstanding. 

We are looking for more CB members to help our Primary School Reps with the two way communication between the primary schools and RPA and also looking for people who can mentor and take part in the careers day (sharing your career with Year 10). Please do email us if you'd like to help in either area. 

I attended the RPA first Annual Achievements Awards on Tuesday. It was great evening and wonderful to see so many students' efforts being acknowledged, - the school should be proud of them. 

Please make a note of the dates for your diary at the end of the notes. 

Best wishes, 

Harriet

http://www.communityboard4rpa.blogspot.com/ 

Thank You

Thank you to everyone who made it last night to the 3rd public CB meeting. It was a great success and Lesley Kirby gave an informative presentation dealing with questions CB members had previously sent in.

We will publish more notes from the meeting but in the meantime, you can see Lesley's notes for her talk and also a link giving more information on the EBac system below.

The English Baccalaureate

Lesley Kirby has sent us the following link to help people understand the EBac system


"English baccalaureate: a set of subjects which, if all gained at C or above, will give students an overarching qualification and certificate to match. The subjects are: English Lang, maths, 2 sciences, a modern foreign language and history or geography. 


Seehttp://www.education.gov.uk/schools/teachingandlearning/qualifications/englishbac/a0075975/theenglishbaccalaureate for details."


It is worth noting that to get the science element of the English Baccalaureate you either need to get an A*-C pass in core and additional science or you must take all of the three single sciences and get an A*-C pass in two of them.  Both alternatives are offered at RPA, with the more able students taking GCSE in physics, chemistry and biology.  

Lesley Kirby's CB Presentation

Below are Lesley Kirby's notes from last nights meeting. It was extremely informative and we are very grateful to her for the time she put in for us.

TEACHING

• ·      Context: comprehensive school; attainment on entry, especially in upper school, very mixed
• ·      66% of teachers are good and outstanding
• ·      Results in other schools will be better because they begin at a higher level in Y7
• ·      2 ASTs and 2 more will start when they finish
• ·      Proactive and vigorous approach to raising the bar for all
• ·      Support and coaching for ‘satisfactory’ to move them up
• ·      SLT and Faculty Directors have been trained in Ofsted observation; numerous external verifications of our judgments
• ·      Teachers undergo a very wide range of training

CURRICULUM & EXTRA CURRICULAM

• ·      Streaming on entry (SATs and CATs)
• ·      KS3: broad and balanced
• ·      KS4: 3 routes: Route 10+ and 9+ taken by 92% of students
• ·      Separate humanities for all and separate sciences for abler; options which are not in KS3 are business, sociology, psychology; plus classical civilisation for G & T
• ·      ICT projects eg internet rangers, Dragons’ Den, all children do ICT OCR Y10 (95% pass rate), some do GCSE
• ·      Wide-ranging and creative G and T programme for ablest
• ·      Period 6
• ·      Support through LAF for those needing to reach higher levels
• ·      Numerous extra curricular opportunities, particularly sport, DoE, art, drama, music
• ·      Ebac - encouraged
• ·      6^th form – discussions under way. Collegiate model being discussed by all LBRUT HTs – we have decided we will all work together (statement of moral purpose being drawn up)
• ·      Skills developed through eg public speaking, courses like Wider Key Skills, DoE, participation in national and local projects, prefects and their training, ambassadors
• ·      Some single sex teaching has taken place
• ·      Latin: a pilot, one pd pw for Year 7 at the moment. Working with the (reputedly) best organisation in England, Cambridge Latin course and have agreement for some support from St Paul’s
• ·      Lot of sports opportunities and lots of inter school competitions

LEADERSHIP

·      Leadership team to be expanded to include two of our finest teachers who will have, among others, responsibility for Y 7 and teaching and learning. Strong team, to be revitalised by new-comers

• ·      AW joining through our sponsorship of his programme of Tomorrow’s Heads
• ·      DF and LK in contact weekly: advice, support, challenge. AET have been in very regularly this first year and seem satisfied with progress made.
• ·      Leadership planning: currently a very detailed one year plan and a broader brush plan up to 2015. Aim is to be good with outstanding in 3 years. Greensward Academy, the first AET academy, is outstanding
• ·      Very strong, committed and intelligent GB
• ·      Behaviour – clear improvements in school, school not afraid to exclude permanently or extended fixed term. Students clear they know this will happen if they misbehave. We also, though, promote the carrot approach eg Vivos

BUILDING

• ·      Yr 7 refurb due to finish Sept 2011
• ·      Discussions planned for £10mill next week
• ·      New ICT facilities being developed – staff use ICT across the curriculum

COMMUNITY

• ·      Police presence at most schools including those with buses
• ·      Police in schools part of London-wide initiative to get dialogue between Met and young people
• ·      We only have PCSOs – there to ensure students get home safely and for no other reason. They attend where there are large numbers of people
• ·      Continue close work with quindrat HTs and our primaries
• ·      Numbers for Y7 change all the time – about 1/3 are local, but greatly increased number from Barnes. This year’s cohort very able – very different from all current years

Reminder - Community Board Meeting tonight

Dear All, 

A reminder that the CB meeting will be held tonight in the Library at Richmond Park Academy starting at 7.30pm.

We are delighted that both Lesley Kirby and Paul Hodgins will be our guests, answering questions that members of the community have sent us. David Fuller of AET will also be attending. 

We look forward to seeing you later.

Best wishes, 

Harriet

http://www.communityboard4rpa.blogspot.com/ 

Community Board Meeting Next Week

RPA Community Board

 

next meeting

Tuesday 12 July, 7.30pm

 

at Richmond Park Academy

 

 

Come along to hear Lesley Kirby,  Head of RPA  and Cllr Paul Hodgins, Cabinet member for Education at LBRuT, speaking about RPA and answering questions sent in by the local community.

 

Please let us know if you are planning to attend so we can have an idea of numbers. Thank you.

communityboard@richmondparkacademy.org

New Yr7s Transition Camp at RPA July 25th-27th July.

Extended Schools Services have organised three days of fun at the beginning of the holiday for the new intake of YR7 in September. It is a great way for the young people to familiarise themselves with the school, some of the teachers and  meet some of their new peers to say hello to on the first day!

During the first two days the young people put a play together under the guidance of the RPA drama department and perform it for their parents at the school. They also take part in games, a treasure hunt, art and design and on the third day take a trip to Thames Young Mariners for canoeing. 

The feedback was very positive last year from all the students and helped to make the transition from primary to secondary a little less daunting.