June2011Issue - Westminster Academy

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Westminster Academy Newsletter Page 2 Year 10 Gardening Internship creates WA garden and transforms gardens on local estates Albehar Zogaj and Mohammed Ahmed with Mr Giles and one of the planters they have transformed on the Lydford Estate. A group of Year 10 students have been spending every Friday working on a gardening internship. They have created the WA garden at the side of the school and also improved planters on the Warwick and Lydford estates. Below they reflect on their experience: Albehar Zogaj This internship is OK, it is really nice to spend the day working outside. For the WA garden we put the railway sleepers in, in order to create the raised beds and then we had to improve the soil by mixing in compost. We planted onions and garlic from bulbs and planted potatoes in the tyres and well as lots of donated plants. We have learned that plants have to be planted at the right depth and which ones need to be planted deep and which ones planted in a shallow hole. We also learned which plants were best planted in the autumn (such as bulbs) and which best planted in the spring. When we improved the planters on the estates we used bark to cover the soil in order to keep the moisture and give nutrients We also used fish and bone fertilizers to feed the plants. Mamoun Elbashir During this internship we have learned how to dig Left: Ms Junker, Abdulla Mohammed, Mr Giles and Faris Ibrahim working on planters on the Lydford Estate Mamoun Elbashir and Gary Manning with Katie from Vital Regeneration creating planted containers. effectively. When we put the sleepers in we had to dig a trench half way, then place the sleepers and after fill with soil. We spent a lot of time removing weeds from the WA garden. The work we did on the Warwick and Lydford estates made the place look a lot better. Gary Manning I’m glad I was able to work with Katie from Groundwork, she is a really nice person and really knows her stuff. I learned all about plants and how to care for them. Ms Junker is a really good leader and teacher. Mohammed Ahmed We have made a big effort with the WA Garden and have successfully made this place very nice. It gives the people in the neighbourhood an improved environment to enjoy and makes Alfred Road look much better. Elizabeth Martindale, chairman of the Lydford Estate Tenants and Residents Association said, “ We really appreciate the Year 10 students who have been coming to the Lydford Estate once a month to improve the planting on our estate. The students have done a great job and the planters now look great” Ms Charlotte Junker said, “Both the students and the garden have come a long way since the autumn. They should be really proud of their hard work and what they achieved. We will continue to work on the WA garden throughout Term 6“.
Westminster Academy Newsletter Page 3 Student leaders attend leadership training at QK By Yasmin Addouz and Dina Hamade On Monday morning, we were standing in the foyer of Quintin Kynaston School, and there was a palpable buzz of excitement. We were there with a group of Year 9s and Mr Farmbrough, on a project to see how we could improve student leadership at WA. We were asked to sit on a row of chairs in the middle of the school library, and then Miss Shuter, the Head Teacher of QK entered the room. She started by thanking us for coming and then proceeded to tell us what we were going to do next. She split us into four groups. The first activity was to create a list of what we wanted to change in our school. We had plenty of ideas but we weren’t sure how to achieve them! Fortunately, each group was assigned two students from QK. These students were all part of QK’s Student Voice, and they helped us to plan ways to make our changes happen. After we were finished with this we had to go and present our ideas to the rest of the room. QK’s Head of Student Leadership came and wrote the top four ideas on a flip chart and evaluated possible solutions for them. This helped us a lot because it addressed many unanswered questions that we all had in our minds. The second activity was a carousel of four activities to test our teamwork and leadership skills. The first involved walking round an obstacle while blindfolded, the second was a discussion activity, the third was a activity based on using our imagination to imitate a famous landmark using everyday objects, and then the final activity involved coming up with ideas all together about ways to improve our school leadership program. These activities all helped us understand the way we all think, Zainab Yahya, Mohamed El-Guerbouzi, Ehab Khettari and Tyef Rahman at the QK training day and how to listen carefully to each other’s ideas. Finally we were introduced to the idea of prefects. This is the current school leadership system in QK, which seems to be working very well. The idea involves nominated students being assigned to help keep an eye on behaviour in school and being responsible for dealing with it. The key to making this idea work it is that everything is set up and dealt with by students, which enables students to feel more comfortable about speaking up about how the feel. After the prefect idea was introduced we had our lunch and headed back to school. We spent an hour putting together an overall plan for creating more student leadership at WA, and we hope to introduce these ideas to the school soon! Year 7 Trip to the Imperial War Museum By Yousra Mansour My Year 7 topic class went on this amazing trip to the Imperial War Museum .The trip was very amusing and interesting and we got to learn many new facts. It was very useful and reflected back what we were learning about in our Topic class. The best part of the trip was the TRENCHES ! We could experience a WW1 trench and go inside it. We could really experience how scary it was for the soldiers and the deeper we went into it, the more creepy and scary it became. Another fun , enjoyable and entertaining experience was the BLITZ ! It was so realistic even though it was very unsettling as we lay there trembling and panicking with fear. The Museum has very old and mysterious things from the wars. I loved going to the Imperial War Museum. Everyone in my class enjoyed it too, who wouldn’t enjoy this fascinating trip. No one should never miss the great chance to visit The Imperial War Museum. YOU'LL LOVE IT TO BITS!
Page 1: Principal Smita Bora with students
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June2011Issue - Westminster Academy

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