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The following five students: Lola Onalaja; Batool Naqvi; Faisa Ahmed; Radim Asil and Athikur Chowdry, had an amazing opportunity on Monday 30th November, where they visited the Royal College of Surgeons.
This self-directed visit gave the students a chance to explore how to apply for medicine, learn different types of medicine and have the opportunity to ask questions to a panel of medical students. They also took part in mini workshops that will assist them with suturing, laparoscopic and interview skills.
The students thrived from the experience and feedback and pleased that it gave them an excellent insight to medicine and assisted them on future education and career decisions.
21 Sixth Form students offered to act as volunteers at a Christmas shopping event on Thursday, 19th November 2015 in Uxbridge High Street. During the day they assisted elderly people with their Christmas shopping. The event was organised by the town centre minister and we were one of several secondary schools that had been asked to support on the day.
After assisting the guests with their shopping, the students took their elderly guest to the Middlesex Suite at Uxbridge Civic Centre for a Christmas lunch. Everyone, including volunteers and accompanying staff, were treated to a meal. Whilst all guest ate their lunch, local primary schools sang Christmas carols.
A special guest made an appearance and presented each elderly person with a Christmas gift to complete a lovely day.
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Six sixth form students, Aisha McPherson, Nathan McGreeghan, Chloe Allen, Charlie Tomkins, Sanije Sylejmani and Sanah Sacranie, devised a drama piece on anti-bullying and performed it in front of 120 students at Whitehall Junior School on Wednesday 18th November 2015.
The performance was followed by two successful workshops, teaching the primary students successful methods for tackling bullying. The event was part of the sixth formers’ Theatre In Education project, that they have been working on since late September.
The performance was well received by staff and students at Whitehall Junior School, with one member of staff asking if they were a professional touring theatre company.
Debating victory!
This year Uxbridge High School, defending champions of the West London Schools’ Debating League, had more students than ever taking part, and victoriously too; winning nine first places and comfortably scoring First Place School overall.
The sixteen students, from across Key Stages 4 and 5, competed in the first round against schools such as Langley Academy, Villiers High School, Harlington School and Rosedale Academy.
It was the first debating experience for most and all performed exceptionally well. Students had prepared the motion “This House Believes Surveillance Has Gone Too Far”. The teams performed with confidence and poise, especially in their interpretations of the motion and rebuttal to opposing teams. The second debate was on an unseen topic, “This House Believes We Should Decriminalize Drugs”. Here we benefited from the advice of our student coaches Mohammed Khan and Athikur Choudhury. The teams did particularly well, scoring 1st or 2nd place in many debates. Particular mention must go to Suidi Mohamed and Sumaya Dhashane for feisty, yet impressive performances!
Many students received well-deserved praise from judges, with standout performances going to those who won straight first places: Alex Old, Esme Henry, Vishal Joshi, Gurleen Arora, Callum McGloin, and Gloria Feudjo Tepie.
Other strong performances came from Kara Shipperly and Rosa Beishon, who scored 1st and 2nd place; to Aathithan Luckeeswaran and Hans Aukhaj for their perceptive summary speeches; and to Arjola Idrizi and Farhana Choudhury for their teamwork and challenging Points of Interest delivered to the opposing sides.
Many congratulations to all the students taking part.
Fourteen UHS Sixth Form students, with their English teacher, Ms Yiola Rizava, attended an advocacy training exercise (a criminal trial) at Brunel University.
Brunel law school students played the roles of witnesses, the complainant (victim) and the defendant (accused), and acted as members of the board (or jury), in a trial for assault causing serious bodily harm. The law students were examined by professional advocates working for the Service Prosecuting Authority (SPA), who prepared and presented both the prosecution and defence cases for this trial.
The trial took place at Brunel Law School’s moot court. The proceedings were presided by Mr Bruce Houlder CB QC DL, as acting Judge Advocate, first and the former Director of the SPA. Mr Andrew Cayley CMG QC, Director of Service Prosecutions (DSP since Oct 2013), along with several other experienced SPA officers, were in attendance.
After the event, the sixth formers had the opportunity to put questions to the law students about their experience of the trial and studying at Brunel more generally. They also met with law academics and the SPA lawyers, who are all accomplished professionals completing formal further training [via a thorough induction programme] at the SPA.
This is a review that one of our Year 12 students, Hans Aukhaj wrote about the event:
Brunel University and the Law School were very pleased to welcome the UHS students to this event, and look forward to further collaboration in the near future.
Students at Uxbridge High received an experience like no other, alongside Brunel law students.
Students at Uxbridge High were given the opportunity by Ms Rizava to witness a mock trial hosted by the Service Prosecuting Authority. The experience was provided courtesy of the senior lecturer in the Brunel Law School, Dr Giannoulopoulos. The venue for the event happened to be Brunel University, so it wasn’t far for the students to travel.
We were welcomed at Brunel by Dr Giannoulopoulos, who directed us into the room where the mock trial had begun. The moment we entered the room we all felt the tension between the defendant and the prosecutor. The mock case was of two military personnel (one pregnant female soldier and one male soldier). As the case goes, there was a small argument between the two, which meant the case was categorized as an ABH (Actual Bodily Harm) case.
Throughout the evening we were treated with the highest level of hospitality by the members of staff, the SPA and the law students. After the mock trial had ended we were given the chance to converse with the Brunel students and ask them for advice on their course. The Brunel students allowed us to gain an insight on to what studying law consisted of, or more specifically law at Brunel.
53 students from Uxbridge High Sixth Form had the opportunity to attend the Skills London 2015 convention on Friday 13th November 2015, at Excel London.
Skills London is the biggest interactive jobs and careers event for young people in London.
It was a fantastic event, offering the opportunity to interact with some of the best names in employment, education and training, in a highly interactive and inspirational environment.
Our students were offered a real insight into the world of work, a chance to try out new skills and activities and gain impartial advice about global opportunities.
This was the third year in a row we have been to see Intermission Youth Theatre’s annual production. This year we took fifty Year 10 and Year 11 drama students to see the company’s version of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, ‘Rise and Fall.’
This production fused Shakespeare’s language and London slang and set the story in a school, where gang violence and knife crime was a problem. It was an incredibly professional performance and we were so proud to see two roles being played by former UHS drama students, Donnovan Yates and Iain Gordon, who had visited the theatre company on a school trip three years ago. The students visiting thoroughly enjoyed the production.
As part of the preparations for our Year 3 Festival with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), the following RSC Enrichment students, Aisha McPherson, Sanije Sylejmani, Sanah Sacranie, Ayisha Ali and Attia Kochai, were given training to help direct scenes from the chosen play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. As we are going to perform one day of the festival at the Arts Educational School’s Andrew Lloyd Webber Theatre, we were given the opportunity to hold the workshop at the venue, which also gave us the chance to see the facilities and the stage they will be performing on.
The workshop was led by Aileen Gonsalves, who is our Director Mentor from the RSC. She worked with teachers and students to develop ideas for the Festival. Intermission Theatre were also part of the training.
It was a great opportunity to create imaginative ideas for the Festival with a professional director; excellent to see the exciting venue for our Festival and see how a London Performing Arts School operates.
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The Routes to STEM event was held at Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus from 2pm to 5pm. It was exclusively for 14-18 year old women, where they discussed all the different ways people begin their scientific careers. They explored apprenticeships, A-Level choices, university degrees and work experience.
They had an opportunity to ask a panel questions and network between each other and the experts. Confirmed panellists included: Lucinda Sandom-Allum (Imperial College Union President), Androula Alekou (Postdoctoral Research Assistant) and Daniel Garrett (Fare Will, Imperial-RCA Design School and Oxford Engineer).
Student’s feedback was very positive and assisted with making decisions about their future education and career paths.
On November 7th, thirty Year 12 students participated in the Barclay’s Life Skills workshop on work, people and money skills. It was led by a representative from WE Day, with four volunteers from Barclays Bank.
The workshops were lively and interactive, which kept the students engaged and motivated.
A feedback form was provided by one of the key students for the day, Jarvis Edobor (pictured below with Alex from WE Day). He wrote:
On the 7th of November thirty students had the great opportunity attend the Life Skills workshop from Barclays, by a company called WE Day. The day was run by a young enthusiastic charity worker named Alex.
The 3 hour workshop taught us the fundamentals of a good interview and how to manage money well, through a mixture of debates, intriguing questions and fantastic activities.
Alex kept us engaged with hands on activities of presenting and group discussions, which really helped to build our confidence for when presenting in front of crowds, a trait that will become a larger factor as we grow and become more accustomed to the life of work.
The workshop also included really fun energizers mixed with serious life questions that really made it a cool way to learn about how our present actions will impact our future, taking us closer or further away from where we want to be.
The workshop was a great experience and we would like to thank Alex and the Barclays workers for the chance to partake in the day
On 5th November, the Road Safety and School Travel team, invited all Year 12 and 13 students in Hillingdon to attend the Safe Drive Stay Alive presentation, being held in at the Winston Church Hall in Ruislip.
The purpose of the presentation was the importance of a young driver’s safety. Reaching new and pre-drivers in an emotive and hard-hitting way, influencing behaviour and attitude on the roads.
The presentation consisted of numerous partnerships, including London Ambulance Service, MET Police, London Fire Brigade and Transport for London
The students learnt that young drivers are much more likely to be involved in a crash on roads, often due to inexperience and a lack of knowledge of the risks.
It was a fantastic opportunity for the 45 students from Uxbridge High to be exposed to the information and real life experiences of all the presenters.