Dear Parents and Carers
I hope you are enjoying the bright spring sunshine and your children are looking forward to their final fortnight before we break up for the Easter Holidays.
All the results are now in following the final set of Y11 mocks. Our founding cohort are on track to achieve a Progress 8 score of +1.52 - this would mean achieving more than 1 1/2 grades higher per subject than they would have expected to achieve at an average school - placing Soane pupils within the top 10 in the country for their progress. Huge congratulations to them for their work so far - the final weeks' of preparation are in their hands. Please ensure that pupils prioritise revision and maintain consistent study routines at home - minimising distractions and keeping commitments outside of school to a minimum will help them make the most of the remaining time. Your encouragement, structure, and support will make a significant difference to your child’s confidence and performance.
Eid is expected to fall on either Thursday or Friday of this week. Pupils are allowed one day of authorised absence for religious observance at Eid and must return the following day. If your child will be absent for Eid, please inform the school in advance by emailing absence@arksoane.org. Pupils who are absent for one day of religious observance at Eid and have perfect attendance otherwise will maintain their 100% award.
With considerable sadness we have had to cancel next Thursday's Exploration Day due to planned RMT strikes meaning significant disruption is expected on all tube lines. Please see further details below.
I hope you enjoy the remainder of the weekend.
Mr Neuberger
This Week's Highlights
On Wednesday, the students involved in our Year 10 Oxbridge programme were invited to tour Jesus College, Cambridge, to see what life would be like as a student of the University. They spent the day with student ambassadors, asking them questions about their academic experience and the application process, before having a short lecture from a fellow of architecture at Jesus College. The group did Ark Soane proud, asking insightful questions and impressing all the academics they met with their knowledge and effort. Well done all!
On Tuesday, members of the Year 7 Choir attended Ark Music's Sing Into Spring workshop. The day started in groups, writing poems and songs on the theme of 'empathy.' After lunch, we joined forces with singers from Ark schools across London to learn some new pieces of music, including a challenging extract from a Verdi opera, where we had to sing in Italian! But our favourite was Cat Burns' 'Live More, Love More,' with Riya singing verse 2 as a solo!
The Year 7 and Year 9 Girls Netball team competed at the Ark Netball Championships this last week. Though the day was a windy one and the girls didn't make it to the final, they all played so well with great professionalism, determination, and maturity. Well done to Riya, Madina, Milla, Widad, and Chinoso for being standout players!
The Year 7 and Year 8 Boys Football teams competed in matches against Twyford earlier this week as well! Both games were very close, with the Year 7 Boys coming away with a 2-1 loss and the Year 8 Boys seeing an exciting match, albeit with a defeat, at 6-5. Well done to both for their tenacity and determination.
Notices
Eid
Eid is expected to fall on either Thursday 19th or Friday 20th March. Pupils are allowed one day of authorised absence for Eid and must return the following day. If your child will be absent for Eid, please inform the school in advance by emailing absence@arksoane.org.
Exploration Day – Update
RMT have announced tube strikes starting Tue 24th March. One of the strike days coincides with our Exploration Day on Thur 26th March - where Years 7 to 10 were due to be out on trips. Taking 720 students safely to and from central London with travel options severely reduced and heavily congested simply is not possible.
It is therefore with great sadness we have to announce that Exploration Day will not run this term. We will have a normal lesson timetable up to the end of lunch that day, followed by tutor time and dismissal from 13:30. Due to venue availability, it will not be possible to rebook these trips for another day this academic year.
The one exception to this is Year 10 students studying Geography, who were due to complete their urban fieldwork trip to Stratford. As they are travelling via the Overground (which will not be striking), and this is a mandatory, assessed part of their GCSE, this trip will still go ahead on Thur 26th Mar. As the Tube strikes will begin at 12PM that day, and the Overground will then become very busy, we will leave plenty of contingency time in anticipation of the long journey home.
We know this will be disappointing news. Taking almost the entire school out on trips to various places across the city involves extensive planning, training, and risk management. Unfortunately, in these circumstances, there is not a viable path for all our trips to take place.
We look forward to sharing details about our end of year trips after the Easter break.
Musical Instrument Lessons - Summer Term
Charges for the summer term for pupils who are already taking instrumental lessons have been added to iPay accounts and are due on Friday 20 March. Pupils will only be timetabled for lessons next term if these charges have been paid. If you have any issues regarding payments, please contact the school office at info@arksoane.org
There will be no instrumental lessons timetabled for Year 11 pupils during the summer term.
If your child would like to start learning a musical instrument, they should speak with their music teacher.