Parent Bulletin 3rd May

I hope you are enjoying the long weekend.

Last week many of our pupils in Year 7 and Year 8 participated in the UK Maths Trust Junior Competition.  Many were practicing endless past papers and showing them to their teachers.  They did us proud.  We look forward to entering several into the next round.  If you fancy a go at a question - an example from their paper is here: 

Five different numbers are written in ascending order.
The mean of the first four numbers is 5. The mean of the last four numbers is 7.
What is the range of the numbers? 

For the answer and for more practice - see here https://ukmt.org.uk/junior-challenges/junior-mathematical-challenge.

We welcomed all of our Y9 pupils and parents to our GCSE Information Evening on Thursday night.  The pupils are ready to start the next phase of their educational journey and join an appropriate pathway of highly academic, ambitious and enjoyable qualifications that will set them up for future success.  We will ask pupils their subject preferences before the end of term and will share their pathway and their subjects with you before the start of year 10.  We are exceptionally grateful for your support with weaning your children off smartphones ahead of a possible national ban (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvg3vjkx9d7o) as well as ensuring your children have good homework and sleep habits to set them up for success.  Please note that their GCSE pathway will be dependent on their Year 9 summer exams (16th-26th June) so please encourage them to start revising.

Thank you to those of you who completed the annual survey this year.  I am delighted to be able to share the results with you:

• Staff are deeply committed to the school, inspired by working with Soane pupils and supported by their colleagues and their leaders.  However, even when compared to other Ark teachers, they found themselves unable to give themselves a proper break from work at weekends and holidays.  I am deeply grateful to all of them for their sacrifices to the community and to you for the support and encouragement you give your children's teachers.  
• Pupils were exceptionally positive about behaviour, safety, effort, their learning, inclusion and their relationships with peers and teachers.  Pupils in Year 7 and Year 11 were overwhelmingly positive about their overall engagement with the school while pupils in years 8 and 10 were less so.  We will work with both year groups to make sure that their experience at school is one of warmth, joy and love – and to ensure that pupils in the middle of their journey through Soane continue to understand why we hold unwaveringly high expectations for them.
• Parents of older pupils were overwhelmingly (far in excess of national norms) pleased with the school whereas parents of pupils in Y7 and Y8 were less so (in line with national norms).  We will run further events with parents in these year groups over the remainder of the year to make sure we are speaking with you and involving you more as your children progress through the school.

Our founding cohort will start their GCSE season with English Literature Paper 1 on Monday 11th May.  They are amongst the best prepared and hardest working groups of pupils in the country and we couldn't be prouder of them.  Please bear with them, reassure them and support them through the next six weeks and be ready to celebrate with them when they graduate on 23rd June.

Enjoy the remainder of the weekend.

Mr Neuberger

The answer to the UKMT question is 8.

From Box Hill to the assembly hall our Duke of Edinburgh students are pushing themselves and each other to new heights (sometimes literally)! With the sun shining down last weekend's practice walk was a great success, with every group giving it their all. On top of that our Site Squad is back in action - with a large group of the students fulfilling the award's volunteering requirements by coming in to school early to help set up. Go team!

Students have been beating the heat this week and showing their kindness in many different ways. We had an impromptu book group at lunchtime in the sun on Thursday, some wildlife rescue from Year 8 and our Year 7 girls bringing in enough water to keep their whole form group hydrated!

Orwell Society Visit

We are delighted to have our first ever visit from the Orwell Society this Wednesday during the Year 8 Assembly.  The Orwell society is a renowned organization that brings George Orwell's work alive to people across the world through talks, trips and school engagement.  We are so lucky to have Mr. Dear join us as a distinguished member of the Orwell Society, who has studied journalism and writing himself in addition to his scholarly work on Orwell.