A Message from the Headteacher

Dear Parents/Guardians,

I hope that you are well. Following a period of consultation where we asked for the views of parents, students, governors and staff, I am delighted to be able to unveil the shape of the new buildings we will be seeking to provide when the School is rebuilt.

What is shown to the right, is a central building - which will run along St. Paul's Way - and then five separate low-rise buildings, which will be linked to the main building by covered walkways which will also serve as dining areas. As always, I look forward to welcoming you to the School.

So, there will be five learning communities feeding in to one community campus. Each Year group would be based in a learning community for its tutor time.

I am very excited by this model and look forward to working with you, your children, staff, governors and the Local Authority, to make St. Paul's Way Trust School even more successful and a place which we can all be proud of.

As always, I look forward to welcoming you to the School.

With very best wishes,

Simon Harris
Headteacher

Building a Better School

Well done to students involved in making the much-anticipated SPW Building Schools for the Future film, Austin’s New School.

It chronicles a week in the life of a new student and highlights issues that must be addressed in the design of our new school building. The video was made by students in association with the Hi8us film company. It is being shown to all students in Year Assemblies and has grabbed the attention of all through its mix of humour and reality.

The day, which was held at Rich Mix, Bethnal Green, saw contractors come from across the country, along side Governors and Council members to discuss ideas for the future of SPWCS.

Students Kamran Hamid (7U), Faim Misbal (8U) and Ruhel Ahmed (8U) were on hand to answer any questions about the school and sign autographs. They represented the School wonderfully!

Ms Gaskell, Technology Department

Drama Students Shake Up Shakespeare

St. Paul’s Way students brought Shakespeare to life at the Shaw Theatre in Central London on Thursday 8th February 2007. The cast of Year 10 and 11 students performed a thirty minute version of Romeo and Juliet as part of the Shakespeare Schools Festival. Over a thousand schools across the UK signed up for the festival, which ran nationwide from 29th January to 10th February 2007 and resulted in 25,000 young actors re-enacting some of the greatest stories ever told.

We took the universal themes of Romeo and Juliet and twisted them to give our production a unique, modern and particularly 'East London' twist. One of the drama teachers at the School said, 'This festival gives our students a fantastic opportunity to perform in a real London theatre, in front of a real audience. I would have loved this kind of opportunity when I was their age!”

St. Paul's Way were one of four schools to perform their play at the Shaw Theatre in London’s fabled West End ‘theatreland’ on Thursday 8th February, together will full technical support. The teacher/directors from the School have attended a day long workshop and the school cast also enjoyed a half day workshop at the theatre with the National Youth Theatre. The festival is open to every secondary school and runs every two years.

In addition to its Festival presentation, the talented cast and crew have brought the production closer to home, by staging their version of Romeo and Juliet in the Drama Department at the School. The play is among those studied at St. Paul’s Way as part of GCSE English Literature courses, so the opportunity for GCSE students to watch the production come to life on the stage before them was a very valuable one. Over two performances, the whole of Year 10 saw the show, and a final performance was staged after school for Year 11 students, staff and parents. As with the Shaw Theatre performance, the actors and crew did a fantastic job and did the School proud. We have many excellent budding actors in the School community at the moment, and we look forward to some pleasing GCSE Drama results this coming Summer.

Mr Brooker, Assistant Headteacher

Making a Difference

St. Paul’s Way students were invited to follow in royal footsteps at a stately mansion recently. Boys from the school visited the New Lodge, Fifield, as part of Community Service Volunteers Make a Difference Day. The six students, aged 13 and 14, were tasked to plant the 15th Wellingtonia tree along the drive of the building - the other 14 were all planted by members of the Royal Family, the first of which were planted by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1860.

Ronald Wallis, of Tutor Group 10S, said: “We all learned a lot of things about wildlife and their habitat during the day and some great tips about gardening.”

John Orchard, director of Marchday Group, plc, owners of New Lodge, said: “As Make a Difference Day is all about giving time through volunteering and training, rather than money, we thought it would be great to invite the students to New Lodge for a skills sharing day. We wanted to give students from an inner-city school the opportunity to learn about horticulture, or to improve their gardening skills.”

Ms Addison, Art Department

Special Mentions

Congratulations to the following students who received either A or A* in the Religious Studies mock exam in December:

Jamil Ahmed Chowdhury (11P) A;
Victoria Ajayi-Adesanya (11Y) A;
Farzana Akhtar (11L) A*;
Rahima Begum (11T) A;
Taslima Khanom (11L) A;
Sabina Yasmin Sobor (11L) A*;
Aaron Wilson (11A) A.

Mr. Henry, Head of Religious Studies

I would like to congratulate Tai Dinh of 10W for the outstanding progress he has made on the piano in the last few weeks. He has practiced extremely hard and has far exceeded my expectations of what he could manage. His commitment and dedication should be an example to everyone.

Tuan Pham, 10S, has also made very good progress and worked extremely hard.

Ms McGaw, Head of Music

I would like to commend Farhad Sayad Islam of 11A for walking away from a fight. This required a lot of self discipline. He is trying hard to catch up in Maths.

Ms Begum, Maths Department

Year 11 Suffolk Science