Parent Bulletin 15th December

Thank you for all your support as we come to the end of a very long and final term of the year.

I was immensely proud of all of our pupils' performances on Thursday's Exhibition Evening.  We had hosted 12 London Secondary Headteachers on Monday and had heard from them how hard our pupils were working, how polite they were and how proud they were of their achievements at Soane: to top that off with such quality, variety and confidence in our Exhibition Evening was incredibly special.  Congratulations to all the performers and thank you to parents and staff for making this possible.

It was great to see our parent body being so supportive of the school.  Thank you to all who organised, and donated to, the uniform and bake sale.  We raised £450 which will be used to help provide uniforms to those pupils whose families are unable to purchase them themselves.

I have been overawed by the generosity of donations pupils have brought in for Ealing Foodbank.  Please do continue to send pupils in with un-opened and in-date items that can be donated to support struggling families over the festive season.  Tuesday will be the final day to accept donations.

We are excited to be taking all KS3 pupils out on trips on Thursday and running a dedicated "Futures Day" on site for Y10.  Please look carefully at the staggered arrivals time as late arrivals will be unable to attend their trips.

We will be hosting our Christmas Lunch and Festive Jumper Day on Friday.  Please encourage your child to wear a festive jumper and bring a donation (a minimum of £1) to support the Ealing Food Bank.  We will run a staggered dismissal on Friday from 12.45 onwards.  Please check afterschool arrangements with your child as they must make their way straight home at the end of the day to avoid a gathering of excitable secondary pupils in Acton Town Centre as four local secondaries break up for the holidays.

I wish you a very festive break and look forward to seeing all pupils return on Tuesday 7th January 2025. 

Kind regards,

Mr Neuberger

It's been an incredibly exciting week this week as on Thursday we held our wonderful exhibition evening! We had over 150 students perform and a packed house of family and friends in support. From dance to poetry, Coldplay to Cobain, and a heap more in-between, it was an eclectic and electric night of creative expression from our students. A huge thank you to the PE, English, art, and of course music department for the evening. Thank you also to Soane Parents’ Association for providing a fantastic bake sale and pre-loved uniform sale too; we are greatly appreciative for the generosity.

Our next big performance event will be our school musical – The Lion King! Watch this space for more information coming in the new year.

In art this week, 9 Cicero had a fantastic time putting their new found sewing skills to good use, creating felt figures! And 8 Augustus were treated to a double lesson of structure building this week, working in groups to create the sturdiest structure they could manage! 

Outside the classroom, it was another successful week for Mr Chippendale and his football teams as the Year 9 boys achieved a 2-0 win over Burlington Danes Academy on Monday. Shouts go to the goal-scorers Mo A and Abed, and to Olly for winning Man of the Match for his excellent saves. 

Donations for food banks also opened this week and the students were quick to show their kindness by bringing in non-perishable food and goods. Early shoutouts go to Abdullah (8 Cicero), Mustafa (8 Ramesses), Aiden (10 Cleopatra), and Omar N (7 Cleopatra) for their generous donations already! 

Thank you for the donations that have been brought into school last week. The food donations will really help children and families in need across Ealing this winter holiday. Every tin or can will greatly help.

The last date for collections is Tuesday 17th December. Please ensure that any food donated has a best before date of at least June 2025 and does not contain any fresh vegetables/fruit or milk.

For those students who have expressed an interest in sitting a GCSE in their home language, Ms. Robinson will arrange a writing assessment next week. If students’ writing ability is judged to be sufficient to sit an exam in this language, the school will enter students for the exam in Summer 2025.

Excitingly, the English department has acquired a large number of tickets to see ‘An Inspector Calls’ performed live at the New Wimbledon Theatre on Wednesday 28th May. This is a GCSE set text so Year 10 students are strongly encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity. Students and staff will meet at school at around 1pm and return around 7pm. Since the trip will take place during the half term holidays, students will need confirmation of availability from a parent or guardian to apply. Please fill out the form below to apply for a ticket for your child, and get in touch with Ms Rafalin via info@arksoane.org if you have any questions.

Applications close on Wednesday 8th January. 

https://forms.office.com/e/LLqeyyjZPR

We are launching our community garden in the spring term, hoping to turn many of our students green fingered! 

If you have any plant pots, planters or baskets, any seeds, compost, gardening spades, forks, or anything garden related at all, we would be extremely grateful for any donations.

On Thurs 19th Dec we will have our first KS3 Exploration Day of the year as well as Year 10 Futures Day. A reminder of your child’s trip is below. Please note there will be a staggered start and dismissal – students must arrive for the times indicated below on this day. The approximate end times are indicated also – the office will send texts if there are any delays returning from trips.

All students must be in full uniform on this day, except Year 10 who must arrive in PE kit. They will be unable to fully participate in activities if they do not arrive in PE kit.

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

Year 10 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.