A Message from the Headteacher

Dear Parents/Guardians,

I hope that this Newsletter finds you well. It is amazing that we are already at the end of the first half term of this academic year. Also, at the start of Ramadan, I would like to take this opportunity to wish all those observing it a happy and peaceful month. In any event, enjoy the half-term break.

Our new Year 7s are proving to be delightful, a credit to themselves, their parents and their primary schools. Elsewhere, we have seen a calm and purposeful start to the new academic year, with students serious about their studies. I feel very confident in looking forward to another highly successful year at St. Paul's Way Community School.

Further development of the building and the grounds continues and, over the holidays, there will be redecoration of the ground floor dining rooms and, outside, tree and shrub pruning begins, as well as the clearing of weeds from hard landscape areas. In addition, work will commence on refencing the PE track areas.

As always, I look forward, to welcoming you to the School in the very near future.

With very best wishes,

Simon Harris
Headteacher

Kenyan Orphan Project

One Friday morning last June, forty Year 7 students worked really hard: running, skipping, doing basketball and goal shots. This wasn't some new keep-fit regime; they were doing sponsored activities to raise money for the Kenyan Orphan Project. Other students had contributed by swimming and a couple more by not eating chocolate for a month! Together with the money donated by the Year 10 charity ball, a fantastic £914.28 was raised.

The Kenyan Orphan Project bases its work in an area around Kisumu, where a very high level of AIDS has left many children without parents. Three years ago a group of medical students from Nottingham University went out and, with the help and guidance of local builders, they built a hospital. Two years ago they built some classrooms for a secondary school and this year they erected buildings for a library and a laboratory for the school.

The medical students raised money themselves for travel and accommodation. They also did much of the labour so all the money that St. Paul's Way raised went straight into building materials.

On the first Monday of this term Katharine, one of the medical students involved, came to thank Year 8 for their contribution, she told them more about the project and showed them some photographs of what their money had achieved.

Thanks again to all staff and students who contributed so much time and effort to such a worthwhile project. Ms. Sparkes

St. Paul's Way's "Taming of the Shrew"

Students from the Year 11 GCSE Drama Groups performed "The Taming of the Shrew" by William Shakespeare, at the Jeanette Cochrane Theatre, Holborn, on October 7th as part of the London Schools' Shakespeare Festival.

The show was highly praised for its skilled performances, its modern interpretation and its sense of fun. Many students and parents came along to support the production and enjoyed an evening of four Shakespeare abridged plays performed by students from local schools.

The excellent performance was then encored to further acclaim for students, staff and prospective parents during St. Paul’s Way’s Open Evening on Wednesday 13th October.

Well done to cast members: Amy Thomas, Amy Herbert, Avagay Sterling, Shanola Linton, Thamina Begum, Nadia Begum, Aktarun Nessa, Daniel Johnson, Daniel Sule, Anhar Lak Miah, Liton Miah, Mohammed Sheikh and Mohammed Ali - and to Mr. Edwards and Mr. Brooker.

HSBC Outward Bound Trip to Ullswater

Twenty-six Year 9 students went on an Outward Bound trip to Ullswater in the Lake District between the 4th and 10th October with Mr. Blakeley and Ms McGaw. Students were involved in a lot of very exciting activities, made new friends and challenged themselves to do activities they never thought they could do. The first three days were horribly wet but everyone did their best and most still enjoyed it. The second part of the week was sunny and students on the expedition were treated to magnificent views of the stunning scenery around Ullswater.

Some of the activities that students were involved in were rock-climbing, canoeing, kayaking, gorge-walking, raft building, zip-wire, tunneling, and a gruelling overnight expedition, in which everyone walked for two days carrying tents, sleeping bags, food stoves and clothes. All escaped unscathed and though it was tough everyone felt it had been worthwhile and they had achieved a great deal.

In all it was a very enjoyable and successful week. Ten lucky students will now be chosen to do another activity weekend in May, with two further students returning to the Lake district next summer for the flagship three-week course. Mr. Blakeley

Breakfast Club

A breakfast club will start at School on Monday 1st November. Students will be provided with toast, tea and jam (coffee, fruit juice etc.) from 7.45-8.45am. The club is being trialled during the month of Ramadan to allow any teething troubles to be ironed out before the majority of the School will be welcomed, after Eid.

West End Theatre Trip

On 6th October, 10Y students went to the Soho Theatre to watch a performance of the play "Private Peaceful" by Michael Morpurgo. The trip was organised by Ms Damms, 10Y's English teacher, to help them with their GCSE English coursework.

The play was set about hundred years ago and told the life-story of Tommo, from boyhood to his execution by firing squad at the age of 18, during the First World War (1914-18). The actor Paul Chequer, who played the part of Tommo, has appeared in numerous other theatre productions and TV programmes, including Holby City. His very lively and moving performance brought Michael Morpurgo’s story to life. Chequer worked tirelessly to engage and captivate the audience with his eighty minute monologue. The students found it quite a challenge to concentrate for this length of time but most of them managed to do so admirably. Hopefully they had a worthwhile experience and gained some illuminating insights about how a young teenage boy, not much older than themselves, tried to cope with the shock and trauma of war.

This was not a glamorous play! This cautionary tale shows how easily childhood innocence becomes corrupted. Although alien in many respects to 10Y students' experience of life, the play has an uncanny relevance to the troubles afflicting the world today. With reflection, hopefully 10Y students will be able to empathise with such experiences and apply what they have learned to their coursework (and their lives).

Bangla TV Award for St. Paul's Way Teacher

Gouri Choudhury, a member of our Music Department, recently won the Best Female Singer Award from Bangla TV, the premier Bengali TV channel in the UK.

Viewers of Bangla TV phoned in their votes, giving Gouri more than any of her competitors, to secure her this prestigious award, which she received in a special Awards Ceremony at Wembley Conference Centre on 19th September 2004, broadcast live on Bangla TV.

Maruf Hassan Chowdhury, 10S

Maruf arrived at St. Paul's Way having spent most of his life in Bangladesh. Whilst living there he was a Bangladesh Under-17 Cricket international. He has recently played against both India and Pakistan Under-17s. Since he has been at St. Paul's Way, he has been attending the London Schools' Elite training sessions at MCC, Lords every Friday. He has a good chance of being selected to tour Sri Lanka with the London Under-17 side this Summer and will hopefully start training with Middlesex County Cricket Club in the near future. We wish him well in his career.