Coming Up:
School Events: w/c 1st January 2018
WEEK A
Mon 1st Jan: New Year’s Day
Tue: 2nd Jan: INSET (disaggregated) – school closed.
Wed 3rd Jan: Staff and students return to school. Registration at 8.35am
Thu 4th Jan:
Fri 5th Jan:
Following Week:
Mon 8th Jan:
Building work begins
Tue 9th Jan:
Year 11 iMedia GCSE exam: 9am; Paris trip meeting: 6pm
Wed 10th Jan:
LaSWAP film studies trip: all day
Thu 11th Jan:
Year 8 Parents’ Evening: 4.30-6pm
Fri 12th Jan:
Coming Up: 16th Jan – WES Got Talent; 17th – 19th Jan– BTEC Mill trip (tbc); 18th Jan – Year 10 Drama/music trip; Mill trustees meeting; Governors’ School Improvement Committee meeting; 19th Jan – MFL Paris trip (returns 22nd Jan)
Note – letters regarding out of school trips can usually be found on the school website under “News”
Term start coincided with Halloween and ended with a spectacular Winter Entertainment Evening
The start of this half term coincided with Halloween. To celebrate the occasion, the dining hall was decked out with pumkins and other ghoulish images!
Thank you to everyone that helped make the Winter Entertainment evening such a success on the final Wednesday night of term.
WESPA kept the evening running perfectly with seasonal refreshments and the winter raffle draw.
On Mass – Roundhouse Project
Following the success of On Mass with Jamie Cullum in 2015, the mass music making spectacle came back with a twist – with 180 young musicians and circus performers from across the globe taking over the Roundhouse. As part of the EFG London Jazz Festival, On Mass 2017 showcased the incredible sounds of a range of emerging artists who performed with three-time Grammy award winner and global artist Angelique Kidjo. The fabulous William Ellis Big Band and Samba band partnered London’s top carnival band Kinetika Bloco, for a performance in the Roundhouse’s Main space.
Kinetika Bloco is a performance group with an exuberant mix of young musicians creating a unique Carnival sound with a decidedly London edge.
In preparation for the performance the boys learnt 3 new pieces of music; developed skills in movement, performance, improvisation and memorisation of music; explored different styles of music, including second line, funk and Samba and found out more about what opportunities the Roundhouse has to offer.
It was a truly spectacular Sunday Evening (and a pretty late night for all).
Camden Shout Out vote stopping cuts to youth services
Young people said preventing cuts to youth services was their top priority at Camden Shout Out, organised by Camden Youth Council and the Youth MP.
More than 100 young people had their say on issues ranging from safety on the street and ‘hidden’ illnesses, such as mental health problems, to future educational and career paths.
Improving communication with young people and Camden in 2025 were also hot topics of debate at the Shout Out event held at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London in Granary Square on 6th November.
Young people who attended Shout Out voted on what the top priority for the Camden Youth MP and Camden Youth Council should be. Preventing cuts to youth services came out as the clear winner.
The event was organised by Camden Youth Council and Camden’s Youth MP with the Council’s youth service. Shout Out also marked the beginning of the 2018 Camden Youth MP Election campaign, with young people invited to stand as candidates.
Current Youth MP Esther Joy Boadu, who was joined at Shout Out by her two predecessors Jabeen Rizvi and Hannah Morris, said: “Being Camden’s Youth MP has been a great opportunity for me to represent young people at a local and national level.”
Our own Jeremiah, Year 9 spoke so well at the event that his picture was used for Camden publicity following the event.
Raising Political awareness for Camden Youth
Could an Ellis boy be the next Camden Youth MP? Any student aged 13 to 19 in a Camden school is eligible to put themselves forward – they just need to be enthusiastic and committed. Candidate packs can be downloaded from Camden – www.camden.gov.uk/youthcouncil
Anes 9L has already expressed an interest!
Remembrance Sunday
Mr Altmann ran special assemblies for the boys in October with different Remembrance themes, including his family’s experiences in World War 1 and 11.
The British Legion 2017 poppy appeal which ran during the same week raised £135.66.
Artificial Intelligence Lecture at UCLA
Mr Hamilton took a group of Year 13 Computer Science students to a lecture by the renowned scientist and gamer, Demis Hassabis from Deepmind Google, for a stimulating lecture on Artificial Intelligence and the future impact on society.
Talacre Student at Team London Awards
In November Luke (current Level 3 student), his mum (Sandra) and Lee Davis, the NVQ Officer at our sixth form centre at Talacre, Kentish Town, attended the Mayor of London Team Awards ceremony at City Hall within the chambers.
Lee’s team nominated Luke for the under 25 sports volunteer award and he was deservedly shortlisted, please find attached nomination that was sent through.
Luke 'WON'!
He was presented his award by the Deputy Mayor for London Joanne McCartney and Olympic medallist Dr Alison Mowbray. Luke, Sandra and Lee were over the moon and poignantly Luke dedicated his award to his Grandad who sadly passed away the week before the event.
Lee also got to meet Barbara Windsor & Christopher Biggins and got a cheeky photo!
Luke’s Application – Under 25’s Volunteer of the year (Mayor of London, Sports award)
Before enrolling on CSPAT and LaSWAP 6th Form’s sports education and training programme in September 2015 Luke spent 5 years at William Ellis School.
Luke will be the first to admit that he is not an academic person.
Since October 2015 Luke has accumulated over 700 hours of voluntary work with Camden sports and physical activity team, he has had various roles including race official, race marshall, support assistant and multi-sports coach all within various primary and secondary school competitions and community sports sessions/ schemes.
Luke’s commitment to his voluntary has enabled hundreds of young people to get one to one support in their sports sessions and he has become a role model to teenagers who are looking at becoming coaches in the future.
‘Luke’s commitment and time keeping is exemplary. He is a major part of the sports development team at Talacre and the staff members only ever have positive things to say about him.
Dave Clifford (Head Coach)’Over the past 18 months Luke has become a major asset to our team, when he first came to us as part of his work experience Luke struggled to introduce himself to us, now he leads groups of up to 30 5 year olds!’
July 2017 Luke has now gained his Level 2 in Activity Leadership and Community Sports Leadership and was successful in gaining employment as an assistant sports coach after attending his first nerve racking interview.
Open Evening for LaSWAP
The very busy annual September Open Evening and October Open Mornings for prospective families joining the school in Year 7 in September 2018 was followed this half term by a very successful LaSWAP Open Evening at Acland Burghley School in November. We were pleased to see many of our Year 11 boys there. All our Year 11 boys will have a guidance interview on their options for the sixth form with a member of William Ellis staff and are encouraged to complete a LaSWAP application form, whether or not they are hoping to enrol in September 2018. Boys and their families should rest assured that William Ellis will endeavour to find a suitable course for them at LaSWAP next September, even if they are considering other choices at this stage.
Congratulation to Jimmy, the Brookfield student who won the Geography postcard competition at the William Ellis lower school Open Evening – he identified 8 out of 10 countries – the best score ever gained in the competition!
German publishers visit to WES
Mr Altmann, hosted a visit from three German publishers who include mention of our school in a textbook series used in Germany. This is a letter they emailed after their visit with the comment “we thoroughly enjoyed the chance to update our infos on the school and to meet so many friendly and competent people, both boys and staff”:
We, three authors from Germany, were delighted to be able to visit William Ellis School for Boys after the half term holidays. The school features in our textbook series designed for German learners of English and appropriately called Camden Town. Two of our textbook characters attend William Ellis School, the girls are at Camden School for Girls, which we were also able to visit. Since it is important for us to be as authentic as possible, we were very keen to see the schools again. Our last visit was in 2011 and there were bound to be new developments and changes.
Luckily for us, our main contact person, Mr Altmann is still at the school and it is to him we owe many thanks for arranging this fantastic visit. We were given a very warm welcome again and greeted like old friends. The day started with an informal meeting with the headteacher, Mr White and Mr Altmann, who gave us some general information about the school, including (for us) new developments, such as the cooperation with neighbouring schools in the Sixth Form.
Subsequently, we were given a chance to meet some of the pupils, who had agreed to show us around the school and answer any questions we had. The boys, from years 8,9 and 10, were absolutely charming and extremely competent. We learnt about all aspects of school life, from everyday organisation like the house system and the canteen fingerprint system to trips to the mill and other exciting extra-curricular activities.
Since our books are not only concerned with life at school, but also life outside school, we also posed other questions about free time activities. These were also accepted and we were not given the feeling that we were unduly prying into the boys’ lives. A big thanks to all those who took part for offering us a wealth of information, we can hopefully use well when writing the new edition.
It was a delight to meet everyone at the school. Thank you also to those teachers, who allowed us to wander quite informally into their lessons. Since we are all teachers ourselves, we are aware that this cannot be taken for granted. We were extremely impressed with everything we saw at the school and with the openness and friendliness that we encountered. Hopefully, this will not be our last visit.
Pam Hanus, Christoph Reuter, Sylvia Wauer
Into Film Festival
Last month students in Years 7, 8 and 12 attended the Into Film Festival. Our Year 7 and 8 mentors viewed Hidden Figures and thoroughly enjoyed learning about the work behind the scenes at NASA of three individuals who battled against racial and gender inequality whilst helping put the first men into space.
Our Year 12 students took part in a Q&A session with renowned film critic Alan Jones following a screening of War for the Planet of the Apes. The following week the Student Council attended a preview screening of Battle of the Sexes.
Year 9 Lunchtime House Football competition
And further afield, another WES footballer, Rafiq, Year 10 played in an international match in the Netherlands early in November. Well done!
Keir Starmer visit to Action Tutoring at WES
Local MP Keir Starmer came to visit William Ellis and Emma, Jen (Interim CEO) and Loren of Action Tutoring, an Education Charity, which supports young people from diverse backgrounds with English and maths studies through tuition delivered by local volunteers. They visit approximately 16 William Ellis boys in Year 11 every week, Tuesdays and Wednesdays after school. The volunteer tutors help them tackle any areas they find challenging and work through methods to prepare them for their crucial GCSE exams. Getting the right grades in English and maths at GCSE are the springboard to enabling boys to progress to A Level courses. Action Tutoring now works with over 30 schools across London but their partnership with William Ellis was one of its earliest.
During his visit, Keir Starmer was able to chat with both pupils (Zac, Nawfal, Hamza, Fawas, Andy K and Washington) and their Action Tutoring volunteers, to get an understanding of the impact that tutoring has had.
Sam White said: “William Ellis School is delighted to have worked in close partnership with Action Tutoring for the last 5 years. The Action Tutoring team have played an important part in securing the success of students in their GCSEs through their tutoring of individual students. Students are committed to the programme and parents value it and are keen for their sons to take part.”
Jack Petchey Awards 2017 at the Camden centre with WES Dance Performance
After their highly acclaimed performance with Tavaziva at Sadler’s Wells last half term the WES Dance group was booked to pen the Jack Petchey Achievement Awards 2017 event at the Camden Centre in the presence of Councillor Richard Cotton, The Worshipful the Mayor of the London Borough of Camden. Award winners from William Ellis School were Jamil, Danny, Juan, Ricardo, Ocean, Hashaam, Adam and Sayed. Each award winner attracts a grant of £250 towards the school!
Performance Platform Concert - 9th November
This informal concert saw boys play a mixture of solo and ensemble pieces they have been working on in front of an audience of friends and peers. It was a great opportunity for the boys to show how much they are developing in their music at WES.
THE WES GOT TALENT FINALS WILL BE HELD on:
Tuesday 16TH January
3.30pm
in the Hall
Year 9 visit to Microsoft … presenting rather professionally!
LOST PROPERTY
A reminder that all items of clothing and equipment brought into school should be labelled. Boys need to be reminded to make sure they have all their belongings with them at the end of breaks and when moving from each classroom.
These are pics of just some of the losses this first Autumn term..
House Poetry Competition
Mr Difusco, English Teacher and new Head of Willow House ran a House Poetry Competition this half term. The winning poems will be used in conjunction with the SLAM poetry event the school runs every year and tied in with the poetry unit all Year 7s, 8s and 9s were studying this half term. In preparation and to encourage entries Mr Difusco emailed a poem to tutors each week for sharing in tutor period. The selected poems were very varied in their styles and the boys embraced these examples in their entries. It was extremely difficult judging the poems but in the end there the following were the winning entries for each house. Well done to all the boys who entered the competition. Here follows their entries.
Lauderdale Winner: Chun
Runners up: Erin, Leon, Gabe
Unfinished by Chun
A bunch of unique drawings,
All wrapped up in one
Single piece of paper.
I would ponder what these ideas are,
But for myself, I am different.
What could I possibly be?
In fact, I am naught – zero.
I am the unfinished space
That you cover me with.
Imperfect and awfully shaped
It makes life more,
Challenging…
These random ‘things’ you see
Left alone and erased
As I take back my space.
But it helps me too!
Because there is no finished
Without the unfinished
Keats Winner: Marco
Runners up: Connor, Thomas, Cameron
The Diverse City by Marco
My city has two sides,
As does every story.
Some people have got everything
That they like
And other will have to fight for it.
I am hopefully optimistically pessimistically realistic
But my characteristics are mystically going ballistic
Over the injustice of this.
I cannot drown out the thoughts in my head,
If we are all equal, then
Why can one man sleep peacefully within his bed, W
While another doesn’t even
Have a roof over his head?
Fenton Winner: Ari
Runners up: Alex, Michael, Saim
Reminiscence of Tel-Aviv by Ari
Morning!
The bountiful pigeons arouse the city
A white, worn-off truck passes by
As I lend my ear to the city and the city only
I can feel the urban livingness being summoned
Almost like an instinctive, ritual cycle
Every individual out in the streets
Every crow on its daily leftover feast
Every single step sounds of amplification
The relentless sun beams tapping on my back
And the tourists marching on the terrifically dirty sidewalk
The awesome neglect that surrounds me
And the noble blue skyscrapers
Superseding hundreds of diminishing small houses
The eminent feeling of elaborate imperfection
Bound to every single tower, tree, traffic light
The urge to kiss the land in its fair terms
The languid waves of the leaden sea
Crushing one after one into beaches of plain beige
Forcing the beholders to stay and watch
The mannerly adrenaline in air
Featuring the charm of the infinite nightlife
And the infinite-seeming night hike
Accompanied by the sober wind
The sound of a school bell nearby
Still stuck in my head as if it was yesterday
It's the people I used to acquaint
The fun sound of motorbike extravaganza
Mounted by their old, sluggish drivers
On a peaceful Shabbat morning
And all those nostalgic pieces of reminiscence
Which slowly fade away from my identity
Hello Tel-Aviv
And as it happens,
Goodbye Tel-Aviv
Burgh Winner: Daniel
Runners up: Jonah, Danny, Pablo
If I would say the word ocean,
You would say blue.
There is a lot more than that –
The creatures that lurk the depths
Or the wrecks that make you wonder.
If I say the word land,
You would say home.
There is a lot more than that –
The ruins that make up time
Or the volcanoes pouring down with molten lava.
If I say the word air,
You would say sky.
There is a lot more than that –
The birds that see the whole world
Or the peaks of mountains standing tall.
If I say the word Earth,
You would say planet.
There is a lot more than that –
The weathers make up unnatural events
Or shapes that confuse us all.
If I said the word human,
Now you would wonder.
Willow Winner: Archie Williams
Runners up: Alex, Ben, Piotr, Adam
The Boy by Archie
Don’t worry it’s not gory,
As it’s not a horror story,
But we should look into these stories.
So you guys all on your phones,
Take a look at the people who are truly alone.
On Monday he stood with all the other kids,
Fighting. Playing. Talking.
Just being annoying.
He laughed and joked about his day,
But no one thought to say,
Are you okay?
On Tuesday he didn’t talk,
to all the other folk.
We raised our hands and copied it all down.
Although we never cared,
For the boy who never shared.
On Wednesday, there was a seat.
It was lonely and bare,
But did anyone care?
No was answer.
As we didn’t see the boy who was slowly drifting out to sea.
On Thursday he sat still, but he wasn’t ill.
He just sat away,
Including from his so called ‘friends’,
Acting like a bunch of clueless hens.
On Friday he once again came in,
But looked like he’d committed a sin.
In class he didn’t mutter a stutter.
In P.E. he never got changed,
And if he did he stood in shame.
However, if you think about this,
He was just any other kid,
In a class full of kids.
But did anyone talk to him?
But did anyone ask him?
Did, anyone help him?
Did anyone know what was
Happening
To him?
With all best wishes to our talented students, their families, our staff, governors, trustees and all the friends of WES for 2018.