Newsletter Vol. II Issue. III 10 October 2014 An Update from the States From NCS to the Rank Foundation by Ellie Geoghegan by Trieu Ho The Rank Foundation leadership award is about ensuring that potential leaders thrive to achieve the best that they can and it does so by providing support in and outside of school. The foundation is set on teaching the award holders the principles of leadership and allowing them to develop these skills through work experience. It’s been just over a month and half since I got to Colby College and already I’ve been to an (American) football game, we lost but it was still fun! The college experience is equal parts crazy and brilliant, I have tons of work but the amount of fun I’m having definitely makes up for it. In the short time I’ve been here I’ve been camping, had a prospective student come to stay, and already had my first batch of midterms. Colby is insanely beautiful and the people are so lovely (although I can’t begin to count the amount of times I’ve been asked to say ‘Harry Potter’). As I’m writing this, I’m sitting in the student centre listening to great music and people watching and I love it. I have a job in the library, I’m taking four really interesting classes: Philosophy, Art History, Italian, and Calculus, and I’ve joined a Broadway singing group. Fall break starts today and I’m going to Canada on Saturday, and honestly I really do feel like I’m living the life. I’ve got to say I do miss home, and I definitely miss some of our delightful British food. Ultimately, this is the start of the best experience of my life and I can’t wait for it to continue. One particular experience that really captivated me was working with Essex Boys and Girls club to deliver the National Citizenship Service (NCS) to young adults. This involved camping and other typical outdoor activities which gave me time to really see the group bonding together. Having completed the NCS myself the previous year, this gave me a look from the other side of the page as I was working as a volunteer. The Rank Foundation has allowed me to flourish as a leader and as a person, and I am very much thankful for having won this award. LAE Marketing Challenge by Arsema Assefa On the 8 October, while Eton and Caterham visited their Partner Schools, Brighton and Highgate were asked to compete against one another, in an all-day long competition to promote our School for future students. Superpowers and Breaking Barriers: A Girls Perspective by Nadiya Hussain The day started with an engaging talk about the industry of advertising from Miss Lewis’ sister and the potential careers that student could look forward too within the industry and what to expect. Miss Lewis herself worked for an advertising firm and worked with prominent brands like Apple. Then we were asked to form groups of five and six to brainstorm ideas, design a pitch and then to present our finalized idea to our house judge. As I am in Brighton, Miss Sargent was ours, and she had the challenging job of deciding a winner and runner up, in Brighton House. After that, two teams were chosen, and were put through to the final round where we went against the winning Highgate team. Mr Bird, Deputy Head at Brighton College and an LAE governor attended the final as well. Tensions were running high, and the judges were not going to be easily impressed, and each team seemed to have given a skilled and professional presentation which included fantastic ideas. The winning team was my team, and it was another victory scored for Brighton House! The engineering talk from Mr Cheung last Friday gave an insight into engineering at university level. After an introduction, a background on Imperial College and a bit more information about the department (electrical engineering) in particular was given. Then the real fun started, learning more about the endless opportunities that open up to an engineer, and how making that one’s discipline regardless of the institute it is studied at, changes the way a person thinks, lives, and makes decisions. It makes you analytical, creative and a generally betterrounded person. Then there's the knowledge that you'd have the power to solve the world's problems, and who wouldn't want to have that superpower? Being a girl, I'm pleased to say there was no mention of engineering being a gender specific profession, so it's fair to say barriers are being broken. At least at LAE and Imperial College. Nevertheless, the day was certainly not only about winning but an informative experience on the industry of advertising, and today has certainly left a huge impression on me and many other students. But the most important message given out had to be that as students who take A Level maths, engineering is just one of the many exciting things you can go into, as maths is everywhere. Without it, the phone in my hand as I type this would be useless, and you'd probably not be reading this right now either. by Harrison Iloh My Trip to Eton by Mythily Nagarajah LAE offered the members of Caterham house the amazing opportunity to visit our partner school of the same name. In a day long trip meeting our partner school buddies whilst also experiencing a day in the life of a Caterham student. My trip to Eton College was not only extremely interesting, but also a hugely worthwhile experience. During the day of the trip, I had come across many interesting remarks not only about the school but of the students too. A Day in the Life of Caterham Arriving late and slightly soggy from the never ending rain, we were greeted with the grand site of Caterham School. From there on we met our partners, accompanying them to one of their lessons we were given a direct insight into the differences and even similarities between the teaching at LAE and Caterham. After an eventful lesson we were then swiftly taken for lunch (one of the highlights of the day), where we were given the chance to interact and socialise with the Caterham students. This was a great opportunity to find out from a student’s perspective how they were finding caterham as a school and even just to learn more about our partners as people. The trip came to it's inevitable end, but not before the days exciting climax in which each person was assigned to a certain event ranging from wall climbing to circus skills, but in my case I had the luck of being selected for 'wildcats' in which we traversed a selection of high ropes, even being confronted with a leap of faith. The trip was fantastic overall and was a great chance to meet new people and experience a different setting. As soon as we got there we were warmly welcomed with refreshments, and afterwards we were paired up with a buddy. With the buddy we had a chance to occupy two of their lessons. Observing their lessons, I had learnt that just like LAE, Eton also has a small number of students in their classes, meaning the teachers have more time for each student. The teaching style in Eton was very similar to LAE, as classes were very quiet and lots of work was completed in a short time. I also learnt two of the teachers at Eton also worked in LAE too. Throughout the day I came across many similarities between LAE and Eton. Other similarities included Eton’s use of Houses too, and for each house they have a House Captain. The house Captain was allowed to wear preferred waistcoat. House Captain was also in charge of the House competitions such as the House quiz. The Houses were named after the initial of the Housemaster or the name of the House they boarded at. In total there were up to 26 houses with around 50 students per house. I also discovered that that the students went home every three weeks. The school day meant that they had to do sport every day and they also had assemblies at 8.15 before getting dismissed for free time. During my visit, I learnt that Henry VI founded the school, and that the school has a statue outside their chapel of him. The chapel of the school is very big and very peaceful place for students. The school has scholar program awarding high achieving students like at LAE. To conclude, visiting Eton was a brilliant experience and I felt very inspired by the school. I hope to get more opportunities like this at LAE and look forward to welcoming my Eton buddy when they visit LAE. Information and PSHE Badminton Report Next week’s Core Value will be Excellence, followed the week after by Resilience. Six Badminton players travelled to Brampton Manor Academy for the first Badminton fixture of the year on Wednesday 8 October. Last week’s Head Master’s Awards were presented to Jason Luong for always making the most of every opportunity to develop his knowledge, skills and interests, and to Aishah Ahmed for exemplary prep in English Literature, including degree quality annotations. Upcoming Dates for your Diary House Public Speaking Competition Wednesday 15 October Basketbell vs Brampton Manor School Wednesday 15 October LAE Open Day Saturday 18 October Unfortunately Brampton Manor Academy was unable to field a girls’ team at the last minute so a mixed team from the London Academy of Excellence travelled to play a combination of singles and doubles matches to decide the fixture. The team of Zakariya Allachi, Muhammed Munaim, Aliyah Siddiqui, Jason Luong, Arshdeep Gill and Albion Shamolli played very well in their first outing. Accolades for performance must go to Aliyah Siddiqui and Arshdeep Gill who won all three of their doubles matches! Final Result: 4pts – 4pts. INSET Day Friday 24 October Congratulations to the team. Badminton training for the team will now move to SportsDock at the University of East London on Tuesday afternoons. Term Ends Thursday 23 October Term Resumes 3 November _____________________________________________ www.excellencelondon.ac.uk Broadway House, 322 High Street, E15 1AJ 020 3301 1480 _____________________________________________ This is the home venue of the Black Arrows Badminton Club who kindly coach the London Academy of Excellence Badminton team. @LAEstratford 2015 Entry Open Events Saturday 18 October 9:30 - 14:30 Tuesday 25 November 16:00 - 20:00 Saturday 10 January 9:30 - 14:30 To register to attend an Open Event, visit www.excellencelondon.ac.uk
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