NEWSLETTER
VOLUME 10
ISSUE 4 SUMMER ‘20 Quest News
Creative Arts
Humanities
I Principal’s Message I Duke of Edinburgh I Earth Projects
I Design and Technology I Drama and Media I Art I Food Technology
I Geography I History I Religious Studies I Sociology
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English, Languages, Maths and Science I English I Modern Languages I Maths I Science
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Sports News I Virtual Sports Day I Term Dates
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DofE Certificate of Social Value
Principal’s Message This term has certainly been the most unusual one I have experienced in my teaching career. The usual buzz of school life has been replaced by an eerie quiet and of course most of you have been at home now for many weeks. However, some really excellent work has taken place at home, supported by you. This edition of the newsletter is a celebration of that work. Perhaps it shows us that even in adversity there is opportunity and things we can celebrate. I’d like to thank everyone for their commitment and support during these strange times: the students themselves for doing their very best, the staff for adapting to remote learning within a matter of days and parents for keeping that learning going at home.
The Quest Academy has been awarded a Certificate of Social Value for 2019-20, which details the total hours that our Duke of Edinburgh (DofE) participants donated to their local community. Across London, DofE participants contributed an incredible 356,616 hours of volunteering to help others, which equates to a social value of over £1.5 million. DofE London Director, Clare Argar, has passed on her thanks to the Academy, our DofE Manager, staff volunteers, and finally our incredible students who have made such a positive impact on their local community.
Year 7 Structure of the Earth Project In March, Year 7 students created either a poster or a model of the structure of the Earth, as part of our natural hazards topic. Teachers then voted for their top three. Congratulations to Wiktoria, Cristian and Meli!
We do however very much look forward to having all of our students back with us as soon as we are able. Until then, continue to stay safe.
Mr. A. Crofts
The Quest Academy • Farnborough Avenue • South Croydon • CR2 8HD 020 8657 8935 www.thequestacademy.org.uk
CREATIVE ARTS Croydon Alphabet
Masterpiece Recreation Key Stage 3 students at The Quest Academy have been busy recreating famous works of art during lockdown. Here’s a sample of some of their fabulous recreations.
Art students in Key Stage 3 were set the task of photographing the first letter of their name using whatever they could find at home during lockdown. There were some ingenious and creative solutions, including ladders, shadows, apples, flowers, door hinges and even some handstands to create their letters. Once all the submissions were in, we created a Quest / Croydon alphabet.
Salad Design
Art in Distance Learning In Key Stage 3 Art in distance learning, the students have been making some exceptional works, from photography, to drawing, painting and even Photoshop! The work being submitted was so impressive that we decided to launch an online gallery, and have plans for an exhibition (when the world is all up and running again) at a potential site in Croydon. You can view the gallery at https://ahavers.wixsite.com/thequestgallery The top artists of KS3 during lockdown, nominated by Miss Havers & Mr Barry have been.
Students were set a "design and make" task to create their own salads. Here is what a couple of our students came up with. Well done to all those who attempted this task.
Year 7: Sarai Abamba, Year 8: Alessandra Ion and Year 9: Andreea Popescu. In Key Stage 4 Art, students have been working hard in compiling works to add to their coursework portfolio. They have been studying artists, visiting online galleries and exhibitions and working in innovative ways given the limitations of resources that they face. Page 02 Volume 10 Issue 4
TECHNOLOGY News from the Technology Department Since lockdown started, the Technology teachers have set their students a number of tasks and challenges to complete. The tasks included a range of activities from written responses, to the more creative design tasks. Those who engaged with the tasks found them to be fun and interesting. This of course will put them at an advantage for next school year as they will be ahead of their peers based on the knowledge and experience gained while undertaking their studies. Congratulations to those students who consistently engaged with their work. Well done to all parents and carers who ensured that their children completed work and sent them to us. Continue to support your child to produce quality work.
Tarte Au Citron Challenge Students were given a recipe to make tarte au citron and these two students rose to the challenge. There were other students who made this recipe but these were the best quality photos. Well done Riley and Miel.
Trainer Competition Our project for the summer term was to design a pair of trainers for a key worker. Here are some of the fantastic ideas from Key Stage 3 students. Students employed an impressive range of skills and creativity and many have been awarded the “Star Designer” accolade for their work. In particular, awards were given for excellent finish and presentation in model making, striking designs showcased from more than one viewpoint, excellent design ideas, outstanding drawing and rendering and for accurately detailing the design and making process. The competition remains open! All Star Designers will receive a prize at the end of the year.
Paper Engineering Easter Project Students created some wonderful pop-up card designs in the run up to Easter. Students truly excelled in many areas. Well done to all who took part. Keep practising your paper engineering as this is a very good modelling technique.
Drama & Media During Lockdown In Drama during the lockdown, students explored topics such as puppetry, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Crucible as well as having access to recorded theatre and reviewing plays. Groups have also been working remotely to develop plays that they will have to perform as part of their assessment when they return. Work has been submitted via Show My Homework, photographic evidence, email attachment and video links. Some of the undoubted highlights have come through video links with particular mention to Oscar Pegler who worked on creating a valued piece: https://youtu.be/lz9OKAf4sU8. Harry Bradley produced an amazing video involving Donald Trump which certainly is humorous. Certain students have gone beyond the amount of detail required and genuinely impressed, such as Monique Haba with her mood board about A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
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HUMANITIES Geography During remote learning, Year 7 students have been learning about borders (why we have borders, why people migrate) and went on to study cold environments (glacial processes, landforms and how to adapt to live in these extreme environments). They have investigated why Otzi the iceman was found thousands of years after he died and how glaciers preserved his body. During remote
learning, Year 8s started the unit on Africa. They looked into its historical development including the Berlin Conference and the Scramble for Africa. They also looked specifically at the urban issues in Lagos, shanty towns, piracy in the Horn of Africa and the life of the Maasai. This term, they have begun a topic on climate change exploring the causes, impacts and consequences. During remote learning, Year 9s finished the topic of coastal landscapes. They looked at what impact coastal erosion has on the coast and used a case study example of the Jurassic Coast in Dorset.
They have recently started the topic on glaciers, looking at how they form and shape the landscape. During remote learning, Year 10 students have been learning about development as part of the Changing Economic World unit. They have studied how development is measured, why countries do not develop equally and the consequences of this.
What has been going on in History? Our budding Year 7 historians have been working on their understanding of life in Medieval England. They’ve been exploring key themes of similarity and difference as well as significant events from the time period and have been contrasting experiences for people depending on their standing in society. They’ve also clearly created some superb work! Having finished their studies on the impact of Empire, reaching an evaluative judgement on if the British Empire was a force for good, Year 8 have been looking at the extent to which the trenches in World War One were ‘Hell on Earth’. Students have explored the origin of the conflict, demonstrating their understanding of causation, and through
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exploring various sources of information have been week by week developing an overall judgement of life in the trenches. Our GCSE cohort has remained in fine form with their continued studies of Russia from 1917-1941, and have even started new content, examining Elizabeth I from 1558-1588 and the various obstacles that she has faced. Students have not only been keeping up with detailed and demanding tasks, but are also able to reach judgements on significant events throughout their time period of study, and understand the second-order historical concepts that underpin their studies at GCSE. We’ve also seen students maintaining their skills by plenty of recap and practice of exam style questions. Our senior GCSE cohort has concluded their studies of the Cold War and the
differing relations between the super powers throughout that period, having identified and evaluated the significant events and the causal relationships between them and are now going full steam ahead in their studies of the other part of Paper 2, namely Elizabethan England 1558-1588. They’ve explored not only the challenges that Elizabeth faced on accession to the throne, but also the growing religious tensions, proposed solutions and how this culminated with dissatisfaction on both sides of the religious divide.
HUMANITIES Historical Fiction Competition
This term students were given the opportunity to take part in a historical fiction competition run by the Historical Association. Students could set their story in any time or place but they needed to make it a convincing setting. We were on the hunt for the most riveting reads, creative story-telling and good use of historical accuracy. We have received a variety of excellent entries, ranging from Hitler’s own personal diary; the Holocaust; Dragons; Rosa Parks and lighthouse keepers! The History department will be judging them internally to find The Quest Academy winner, before sending them all off to the Historical Association for more chances to win prizes. Well done to everyone who sent in an entry!
Religious Studies In Lockdown In Key Stage 3, students had six weeks of home learning built around the topic of ethics where students explored how people make decisions about what is right and wrong. Over this unit, they had an opportunity to reflect on the sanctity of life, racial and gender equality, the environment and poverty. This topic helps to develop students’ ideas surrounding morality and decision-making, not only preparing them for the wider world, but also gaining an understanding of why some people may make the decisions they make and where those decisions may stem from e.g. is it due to religion or culture? Here are some examples of the work produced by students during this topic: Students are now working on a unit focused on the key beliefs and practices of Christianity. For many students this is a chance to revise and reflect on previous learning. Key Stage 4 students have continued to study GCSE content on topics including issues of human rights, of relationships and key teachings in Islam. They have been supplementing their study by using online tools such as Seneca learning. Students have shown real engagement and commitment to their learning during this period. Here are some examples of the work produced by students over the course of the last few weeks: Students have also practised their exam skills during this time, with many achieving strong marks and responding to teacher feedback to improve their work.
Sociology GCSE sociologists have been uncovering and analysing inequalities within society, applying their knowledge to contemporary events. Year 10 are currently studying the Crime and Deviance unit. They are applying the concept of ‘institutional racism’ to current events in America, analyzing the riots and Black Lives Matter protests surrounding the death of George Floyd. Year 9 have got involved in this too through the tasks and reading set in the ‘Sociology newsletter’. Year 9 have started the new topic of education – looking at how class, gender and ethnicity based inequalities arise within the education system. It has been inspiring to see the wider reading and research both years have been completing, as well as their creative expressions of these sociological inequalities. Go team Sociology!
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ACTIVITIES ENGLISH AND WEEK MODERN FOREIGN LANGUAGES Get Caught Reading Competition
Guided Reading During home learning, both Year 7 and 8 have been reading different articles each week. They have annotated them and highlighted particularly difficult vocabulary. They have also been completing different tasks linked to what they are currently reading. This can range from designing new titles for the books they are reading, to re-writing the blurbs! There has been some very creative work submitted!
Year 8 and 9 Poetry Anthology
This half-term the English Department ran the ‘Get Caught Reading’ Competition with Year 8. They were encouraged to be photographed reading (either their favourite book or the book they are currently reading) in an unusual and creative place. This was also a nationwide campaign to encourage a love of reading, for all ages. The overall winning entry was chosen based on it being the most obscure and the picture that best fitted the brief. An Amazon voucher and a Principal’s Commendation were awarded. The second place submission won a Principal's Commendation for the most creative picture, and the use of Photoshop to gain an advantage! Third place was issued jointly for interesting photos, each student winning ten merits for their submissions. It was lovely to see many Year 8s engage in the competition. Hopefully, we can do more competitions in the future!
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During remote learning, Year 8 and 9 were encouraged to write poems. Mr Peel set the work in April and the students could write poems about any subject/topic. A few, of course, wrote about the current pandemic, whereas others decided to write poems about a haunted house, the weather, being unique, hope and many more topics. I was tasked with putting together an anthology of the best poems to celebrate the amazing creative work that our students were doing during this difficult time. It was tough to pick which poems should be included. While reading all the poems, I was astounded by the beautiful language used by the students in their work. Every student should be immensely proud of what they produced! Special mention goes to Pedro for his incredible drawings that accompanied his poem and Mimi for using Elizabethan English in her poem.
MFL in Lockdown During lockdown, French and Spanish students have taken advantage of this unique opportunity to not only become excellent linguists through practising grammar and vocabulary, but also through exploring Francophone and Hispanic culture. Through various challenges, we have been looking at food, films, festivals, memes, music and famous sites in French and Spanish speaking countries. Our students have been working really hard and have produced some fabulous work which shows that there is much more to studying a language than what we do in the classroom!
MATHS AND SCIENCE Maths O’Clock Puzzle Since the 2nd April, the Maths department has published a maths puzzle every weekday through Show My Homework, giving students a chance to grapple with mathematics in new engaging ways. Over 750 emails have been sent in by 76 students ranging from Year 7 to Year 13, with new students joining in every week. As of today, 52 puzzles have been published, including some famously difficult ones. The first person to answer correctly gets 20 merits so 10,000 merits have been issued so far, with the top 2 students netting over 1000 merits each through regular participation. The table below shows the top 10 students: Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Name Emma Roseweir Rose Noble Amber Chase Amelia Madgett Makale Checkley-David Mackenzie Madgett Meli Kechagias Ilias Kechagias Aroosh Usman Nina Arkaah
Year 11 8 11 10 8 8 7 9 7 10
Merits 1057 1050 877 862 798 787 499 496 452 319
The Maths department also makes a special mention of Opale Deguin’s (Year 7) Maths work on collecting like terms. She has consistently handed in perfectly laid out work, on par with the quality she normally produces in lessons.
Best rank 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Opale’s work is regularly used as an example of all the right things to do when going through content online: dated and titled, appropriately headed, with full working out and marked in a red pen.
Science in Lockdown The Science department has set a range of activities to engage and motivate students whilst keeping them on track with their learning. Though it wasn't always easy for staff and students, we are proud of the resilience and dedicated attitude
students have had to their learning. Well done to Year 10 and Year 9 students who attempted the Tassomi challenge. Well done to all the Year 7s and 8s who took part in the practical challenge. We have some lovely lava lamps, egg drop challenges and even non-newtonian fluid.
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SPORTS Virtual Sports Day 2020 On Wednesday 1st July 2020 we hosted our first ever virtual sports day. Students were given the opportunity to compete for their houses across 6 events/challenges. The challenges were: n The Distance challenge - How far can you run, walk or cycle? n The Keepy-Uppy challenge - How many keepyuppies can you do without stopping? n The Wall-Sit challenge - How long can you hold a 'wall sit'? n The Vertical Jump challenge - Using the Homecourt app, how high can you jump? n The Wall-Toss challenge - How many times can you throw a ball against a wall and catch it in one minute? n The Dance challenge - Perform a 30 second dance. We had a total of 144 entries from students across the 6 events as well as 5 staff entries. We saw some outstanding performances including an amazing keepy-uppy competition in which Year 7 Oscar Pegler achieved 800, Oscar Moor (Year 8) got 877 whilst Rizgar Bedir (also Year 8) scored a truly remarkable 1,027! We had 10 entries achieve over 10km in the distance challenge whilst Jackson King’s 80 catches in the wall-toss was excellent. Harry Bradley won the wall-sit with an excellent 242 seconds and Cayden Ebanks jumped 21inches in the vertical jump challenge. The overall results were as follows:
Hillary Livingstone Shackleton
408 359 210
Congratulations to Hillary and well done to all competitors.
Important dates for your diary Autumn Term 2020: Wednesday 2nd September 2020 – Friday 18th December 2020 (Wednesday 2nd September – INSET Day – closed to students) Thursday 3rd September – Year 7 students only Friday 4th September – Year 7 and Year 12 students only Monday 7th September – All students at the Academy
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Half-Term Monday 19th October – Friday 30th October Christmas Holiday Monday 21st December – Friday 1st January 2021