Southfields Academy Weekly Newsletter
Week commencing Monday 21st March 2016
Ethos statement: We believe that through individual commitment, self discipline, integrity and respect for others,
we inspire everyone to learn.
Year 9 – Ms Walshe
At the beginning of the academic year we struggled, as a year group, with school attendance, but with the help
of our amazing tutors and students we are now at 94%, which is currently joint top with Year 10. Well done Year
9, keep it up.
We have also noticed a marked improvement in effort across the year group and especially in Science. The
Year 9s sat a skills test before half term and from that we re-set the Year 9 sets and since this has been in
place, the overall behaviour is much better and the students have really settled in their new classes.
We would like to mention two Year 9 students for their achievements; one in sport and the other in the Pi
competition. The first is Kyle Warmington-Reynolds for his incredible achievements in athletics: Kyle has had a
fantastic start to the year as he continues to impress on the track. He has been busy over the past few weeks
competing in Sheffield and Carshalton.
During the England Athletics U15 Boys Indoor Championships 2016 he broke his PB twice on his way to victory,
before winning the Surrey County Athletics Indoor 60m Championships. During the final, he set another new PB
and a championship record of 7.18. He is now officially ranked number 1 in the UK for the 60m, for his age
group! Well done Kyle!
On Thursday 11th February at the Wandsworth Civic Suite, Kyle and his team won the award for the most
outstanding team performance at the 2015 London Youth Games (Boys Athletics Team). It was hosted by David
Garrido - Sky Sports News presenter - who interviewed Kyle. Again, a huge well done!
The second student is Wahbi Said for his amazing effort in the challenge last Friday for Pi day where he
managed to memorise 200 decimal places and came 3rd in the school. Well done Wahbi, fantastic!
Thailand Ministry of Education UK Study Tour
th
On Wednesday 16 March a 23 member delegation of policy makers representing the Ministry of Education,
Thailand, visited the Academy to see our teachers in the classroom. The delegation were in the UK to visit
mainstream (with SEN provision) schools looking at inclusion in practice, and how Initial Teacher Training
prepares and equips teachers with the skills to teach SEN pupils. The Academy was chosen as an excellent
school to showcase our abilities and good practice in these areas.
The delegation toured the Academy, watched and interacted in the classroom and had a question and answer
session with Ms Valin. They were very impressed with how we do things and felt the visit had raised their
understanding of SEN provisions and inclusive education.
PE Dates
Monday 21st March
Y7&8 Inter Tutor 3v3 Basketball
Y10 Football v Richmond Park
Academy
Y8 Football away v Ark Putney
Tuesday 22nd March
Y9 Inter Tutor 3v3 Basketball
Wednesday 23rd March
U14 Borough Basketball
Tournament
1st Team Football v Bishop
Thomas Grant
Dates for your Diary
21st March 2016 – Year 11 Core Mock Examinations Begin
24th March 2016 – Academy breaks for Easter Holidays
29th March 2016 – Easter Revision Sessions
30th March 2016 – Easter Revision Sessions
11th April 2016 – Academy Resumes
Thought for the Week
‘So now, when I look back, all I see is who we use to be and who we are now.
And I wonder how anyone can recognise anyone at all.’
Susan Pogorzelski - Writer
Pi Day
Pi Day is celebrated on March 14th around the world. Pi (Greek letter “π”) is the symbol used in mathematics to
represent a constant — the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter — which is approximately 3.14159.
Pi has been calculated to over one trillion digits beyond its decimal point. As an irrational and transcendental
number, it will continue infinitely without repetition or pattern. While only a handful of digits are needed for typical
calculations, Pi’s infinite nature makes it a fun challenge to memorize, and to computationally calculate more and
more digits.
Every year the Academy holds a Pi Day challenge at break-time with courageous students lining up to see who
can remember the longest string of numbers. This year the entrants were phenomenal, setting very high records
for the Academy and showing amazing feats of memory!
Pi-Minister - Margot Ballon – 659dp (Won £30 of Nando’s vouchers)
Deputy Pi Minister - Zoe Ballon – 453 decimal places
Runner up - Wahbi Said – 213 decimal place
Special commendation to the following people who learnt over 100:
Teachers – Fran Lindau, Sinead Goodden, Will Sweet, Catriona Howie.
Students: Giane Repalda (8SUL), Charley Davey (10CLB), Attia Attaullah (HIY),
Atiya Hai (12DNY), Najma Ali (HIY), Aaliyah Coward (10DFY), Min Thu Kha (7BTS)
We were also swamped with people trying to earn their apple pie by knowing 10 decimal
places of Pi.
Wandsworth Sports Development Football – Mr Miller
Congratulations to the Year 7/8 students for putting on a great performance in a football tournament organised by
Wandsworth Sports Development team. Students from the Hearing Impairment Unit teamed up with the TAS
department to compete against schools from the borough. In the first match, the Southfields Stars were drawn to
play against the Southfields Strikers. Luckily a 2-2 draw between the teams meant that there was no place for
bragging rights!
In the following fixtures both teams lost narrowly against Garratt Park and a strong Ashcroft team. With
Southfields Strikers picking up a well-earned draw against Oak Lodge, the final positions showed Southfields
Stars in 5th place with the Strikers in 4th.
In the end it was a great day with plenty of goals
being scored and much fun had by all!
Well done to the following students:
Claudio Antonio-Coxe, Charles Myers, Nissi Kafinga,
Armel Ferry, Reece Flynn, Devantai Page, Lance
Janicic, Jack Bath, Salah Hassan, Addullah Ayub &
Shmir Mirza.
Under 13 Handball
The Southfields U13 Boys Handball team excelled
themselves by reaching the London School Games
finals at Hackney SCORE. Having won through three
tricky qualifying rounds, the Southfields team from
Year 8 went on to represent Wandsworth in the finals
They started with an excellent 4-4 draw against the
Ealing Team, but were beaten by Bexley. A fine
performance in the third game against Barking and
Dagenham saw the boys win 4-3 with a last gasp
penalty by Denzel. But, they then came up against the
eventual winners from Islington and were defeated.
Tension rose as the scores were added up, but,
unfortunately for the Southfields team they narrowly missed
out on a bronze medal by a single goal! Anyway, the team
travelled home in good spirits and in the knowledge that
they were the fourth best handball team in London.
Well done to: Abdul, Armel, C.J, Denzel, Dwayne, Joe,
Kieran, Marcus, Mattia, Tahil
Volleyball - Mr Davis
On Thursday 10th March our U19 Volleyball squad made the short
journey to Ernest Bevin for a match against their talented U15s. The
Bevin boys are lucky enough to receive up to 8 hours of volleyball
coaching a week, through the Greenhouse Sports programme, and it is
clearly paying off, as they comfortably won all 5 sets. The experience
and talent of Brenda and Paulina was not enough to hold off some
breathtaking attacking from the hosts. Our girls grew in confidence as
the evening went on and unforced errors became less frequent. Nery,
a late addition to the squad, produced the moment of the match with
two mesmerising diving digs in quick succession to win the point.
Rhodelyn is improving each week, while sisters Weronika and Karolina
hold great potential. Zheni demonstrated great consistency with her
setting and Paulina's serve was often too powerful for Bevin to cope
with. Brenda's leadership was admirable throughout. Well done girls!
Inter Tutor Badminton Results - Mr Davis
Y7 - 1st – BTS, 2nd – DSN, 3rd – DWN, 4th – GLL, 5th – REV, 6th – PND
Y8 - 1st – PRA, 2nd – MNH, 3rd – SUL, 4th – ALE, 5th - DMD
Y9 - 1st – CAN, 2nd – SNR, 3rd – TGG, 4th – RES, 5th – MNS, 6th – SAM
Y11 and 6th Form - Well done to the two finalists, Max Beszant and Basil Tahir