25th November

I am delighted that so many teachers and leaders from across the country want to come and visit Ark Soane.  They never fail to be impressed by just how knowledgeable, articulate and polite the pupils are and I wanted to share with you two comments from visitors over the past week:

Visiting Ark Soane today was an absolute delight! The students are brimming with ambition and scholarship. The warmth and positivity in both lessons and throughout the school was tangible, fostering a true love for learning. When you ask a student what they love most about their school and they respond sincerely and without hesitation "the teachers," you know it’s a special place.

Complete mission alignment, impeccable behaviour, enormously high ratio in classrooms, happy, articulate students and joy in abundance. Very grateful to staff and students for their time and generosity.

Recruitment:  One of the many reasons to host visitors is to enable us to continue to recruit exceptionally talented teachers as the school grows. We are now starting our recruitment for September 2025 so, if you know of teachers looking for a new role or people interested in training to teach, then please do put them in touch with me.

Lunch fees:  Sharing food together daily is at the heart of the school and gives our pupils countless opportunities to serve each other, practice gratitude and build a strong sense of community while eating a healthy and nutritious meal.  Despite food price inflation of 35% and an equivalent increase to the London Living Wage (which is paid to all staff) we have maintained our daily provision of fruit, main meal and desert at £2.50 since September 2021.  This provision is heavily subsidised by the school and the cost equates to around £4.30 per person per day.  As a result I wanted to give you prior warning that we will be increasing the cost to £3 per pupil (if ineligible for free school meals) from September.   Please do contact the school if you think you may be eligible for free school meals.

Exams:  Exams will start on Thursday this week.  Pupils in Y7-9 will have history and geography on Thursday and English and RP on Friday.  Pupils in Y10 will have history and science on Thursday and RP and French/Spanish on Friday.  Please wish them luck and reassure them that these are not designed to be high-stakes exams - they are just an opportunity for us to assess what has been well-understood and remembered and what needs to be revisited.  I have been awestruck by the amount of independent revision work pupils have been completing in preparation.

I look forward to seeing your child at the normal time tomorrow.

Yours sincerely,

Mr Neuberger

As the countdown to exams continue, the students have been putting in an enormous amount of effort to prepare! 8 Augustus have produced a whole wall of revision already, and many members of the form have been showing up at break to study hard together! 

9 Pericles, 8 Cicero, and 10 Alexander have also been impressing their tutors this week with their revision- particular shoutout goes to Aaliyah in 8 Cleopatra, who produced revision for all of her subjects this week and did all her SPARKS extension! 

In 9 Pericles, Kotaro and Alisa have been named the King and Queen of revision, and Yasmin and Yara in Year 7 have impressed their teachers by producing over 16 pages of revision EACH! 

The pupils got stuck into their extracurricular activities again this week. Chess club boasted almost a full house, and the PE department were impressed by the high numbers despite the cold weather! 

The Year 10 artists also completed their work on 'Reflection' this week, which is being displayed in a brilliant exhibition in the library building! Huge shoutout goes to the students and their wonderful art teachers! 

Our first Exhibition Evening of the year takes place on Thur 12th Dec, 17:00-18:30. This is a special moment in our school calendar where students present and perform their work from enrichment and their extra-curricular activities including music, dance, and drama.

If you would like to attend the event, you must book a free ticket via Ticket Tailor (click this link to book). We have over 100 students performing on the night; therefore we ask that you book no more than 3 tickets per family. We will be unable to accommodate guests without tickets due to fire safety restrictions. The ticket link will close on Weds 11th Dec. If your child is performing in the event, a consent form will be emailed to you to complete.

Performances will start at 17:20 sharp – we are unable to admit latecomers, so please arrive for 17:00 to avoid disappointment.

We hope that you will be able to join us for what will be a highlight of our academic year so far.

On Thursday 19th December we will have our first KS3 Exploration Day of the year. Students will be going to the following venues:

St. Paul's is a paid trip; the cost is £6 per student (no charge for students in receipt of pupil premium). The deadline for payment is Mon 9th December; if your child is in 9 Augustus, 9 Cicero, or 9 Ramesses, please ensure this is paid by this date on iPay.

Year 10 students will be based on-site on this day. They will be taking part in Futures Day – the purpose of this day is to think more deeply about students’ next steps and increasing independence as they become young adults. On the day they will learn:

• The basics of emergency first aid
• How to write a CV and seek additional opportunities for study & employment
• The importance of health & fitness and how to maintain this through challenges

Students will be using Unifrog on this day; please check with your child they can log in to their account. They can reset this using their school email address at unifrog.org/sign-in.

We know that secondary school students are more likely to achieve academic success if they are aiming towards an aspirational destination (career, apprenticeship, or university) when they leave school.  To support them to research destinations, record experiences and prepare applications all students are provided with access to the Unifrog platform (www.unifrog.org) from Y7 to Y13.

If your child is in Year 8, 9, or 10, remind them to regularly log on to Unifrog to continue researching career and future study areas of interest to them. Year 7 will be learning how to use the platform in the near future; they are welcome to log-in now to begin exploring. An introductory video for using the site can be found here. Students can reset their passwords using their school email address at unifrog.org/sign-in.

We encourage you to explore the site together to learn and discuss your child's ambitions for their future study and careers. 

Please note that all clubs will run as normal during exams week. If we need to cancel a club e.g. due to staff absence, a text will be sent on that day.

From the start of the spring term there will be an increase to the price of instrumental lessons.   The table below shows prices per lesson and per term.   There will be no increase in charges for hiring musical instruments.  If your child is eligible for free school meals, the school will pay 50% of the cost of instrumental music lessons and you will not be charged for instrumental hire.

If you would like your child to stop having instrumental lessons next term you must let us know by Friday 6 December by emailing info@arksoane.org.   If we have not heard from you we will continue to timetable lessons and there will be a charge for these.

If you have any questions about instrumental lessons please email info@arksoane.org.

Dear parents and carers, 

We are very excited to share that SPA (Soane Parents association) will run a bake sale and 2nd hand uniform sale at the exhibition evening, on the 12th of December. 

Please donate school uniform items that your child no longer needs. Uniforms can be dropped any day during the school working hours in the donation box at the school reception. Alternatively, you can send it with your child. All donations for uniforms must be in school by the 5th of December to allow us to prepare for the exhibition day. 

Bake sale: 

We will be selling cakes and sweet baked treats before and after the exhibition to raise money for the school. 

This is going to be our very first bake sale and we want to make it successful.

If you would like to bake and donate your cakes, you can contact Riz (riz@codexfood.com) to let her know what you will be making. All cake donations will need to be made on the 11th and 12th of December before 4pm. Please strictly no nuts in all the cakes.

Both initiatives are a great way to raise money for our school. We count on your support! 

If you need face-to-face assistance then the school office is open during term-time from 8am-4pm. So that we can deal with email enquiries promptly please see the school email addresses below:

• General Enquiries – info@arksoane.org
• Attendance - absence@arksoane.org
• Free School Meals - fsm@arksoane.org