Newsletter Vol. II Issue. I September 2014 LAE gets the best ever results by a Sixth Form College in the UK Many congratulations to our pioneering LAEvers, who have secured outstanding A level results. 77 of LAE's first cohort of sixth formers have secured places at Russell Group universities and five are going to Oxford or Cambridge. Having sat their A2 exams in the most difficult, facilitating subjects, 39% of LAE's sixth formers secured AAB in at least two facilitating subjects, which compares to 2.7% of Newham sixth formers and 10.4% nationally in 2012, and is a percentage that last year would have put LAE top of all the sixth form colleges around the country. LAE secured an A*/A percentage of 43% and A*/B of 71%, results that better even some well-known independent schools. The five Oxbridge candidates are William Sorflaten, who will study English, Amina Ali, who will study Chemistry, Onkar Singh, who will study Modern Languages, Audrey Walela, who will study Human Sciences and Olivia Hylton-Pennant, who will study Philosophy. Much of the credit for their success must go to the 11-16 schools in the borough where they secured excellent GCSE results. William Sorflaten, who secured A*A*A in his A levels joined LAE from Kingsford Community School, while Onkar from Lister School secured A*A*A*. We are very proud of each and every one of the year group and wish them health and happiness in the future. Please stay in touch! LAExcellent UCAS Update Congratulations to all our LAEvers heading off to university this term. This term we have got undergraduates starting at universities from Edinburgh to Exeter and beyond! Five of our former students are off to Oxford and Cambridge and six are going to medical schools including St George’s, Imperial and Kings College London. Other LAEvers destined to improve our healthcare are off to study Biomedical Sciences, Pharmacology, Nursing, Midwifery and Optometry degrees at a range of top universities. My First Week by Nadiyah Munim I've wanted to come to LAE for a long time now, as it seemed like a wonderful place to study. But so far, it's exceeded all of my expectations - the people are friendly, the classes are amazing, and the teachers are excellent. The atmosphere at LAE is also very welcoming! I wasn't sure about making friends that quickly, but I was surprised to see that everyone is conversational and happy to talk. I've already made quite a few friends so far, and I've always loved talking to people so it's perfect for me. In all 77 LAEvers have taken up places at Russell Group Universities including some really prestigious courses like Economics and Law degrees at LSE and one student reading Chemistry (with a scholarship) at Imperial. Many of our Sixthformers are demonstrating their independence and resilience by choosing courses with study overseas: as well as our student who is off to Colby College in the U.S. we have several choosing degrees with a year abroad as part of the package like Modern Languages at Cambridge, Geography with a year in the US at Lancaster or Physics with a year in Europe at Imperial. We wish them all the best with their undergraduate studies. Of course, no one really leaves LAE and we look forward to welcoming them back as alumni, to tell us their tales of university life and help our current Sixthformers with university application advice. Our lessons began on the 10th of September, as we've been going on trips to university open days and partner schools to make for a smoother transition into sixth form. Sussex University was a great place to visit, and looking at the grades required to enter the courses has only motivated me to work harder. Along with the rest of Eton house, I also visited Highgate School on Tuesday 9 September, and meeting the students and taking part in the lessons was very exciting. By looking at some of the material which we will soon be studying, I understood more about what AS classes are like. All in all, my first week at LAE was amazing! Meeting new people and learning about new things has been fun, and I hope that the rest of the year will continue to be like this. Gothic Literature by Nishita Chowdhury Jon Newton came to LAE from one of the partnership schools- Eton, to give the English year 13 students a sense of what gothic was. Mr Newton started his presentation off with clips from the same movie showing the transition between blood, gory and vulnerability to more blood and gory, however, with humour. He spoke about the change in the original gothic ideas such as the northern European tribes to the new ‘typical’ type of Goths associated with the common ‘black’ and ‘unnerving’ emotions that it causes. However, being English students, it was interesting to see how literature has taken its shape in progressing gothic ideologies such as The mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe (1794), Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1818), Dracula by Bram Stoker (1897), etc. Notice how they’re all written in roughly the same century? Say for example, Frankenstein gives ‘’birth to Dracula’’ as Newton put it, its previous gothic ideas exist in different ways in Dracula. It was fascinating to witness how gothic explored the nature of good and evil, or with our fascination with the unknown, however, it was just as important to see how the flip side would argue against the gothic genre calling it sexist, nebulous or cheap, after all, anyone can play a creepy music as a child opens the door nervously only for the camera to show nothing behind the door except when the child looks again, a horrid face stares right back at it. Furthermore, the distinction between horror and terror was also key to understand what gothic was all about. In simple terms, horror is the stumbling upon a corpse, a feeling of shock, terror is the smell of death, the feeling of anticipation. So what is gothic, well, we don’t know, it could be werewolves and vampires, or innocent women, it could be clichés but then how do we get around clichés if when a text was written, there was none? Sometimes we just have to accept that gothic does exist, it just depends on how interpret it and as Newton left the presentation on a true story about a comedian apprehensively holding a dead man’s hand, maybe gothic is just about making the impossible seem real, or to cause paranoia or maybe, it is us trying to avoid the truth… Co-Curricular Update New Games Programme Bouldering is a free flowing form of rock climbing. Rather than climbing high, the main focus of bouldering is to complete a relatively short but technically challenging climbing route. The focus in Athletics will be on sprinting and middle distance running and Badminton, basketball, Dance, Fencing, Football, Handball, Judo, Netball, Rowing, Swimming and Zumba complete the programme. ____________________________________________ Football Club Mr Key (History) is master in charge of the Football Club and is supported by Mr Frimpong, Mr Critchfield and Mr Lloyd. West Ham F.C. will assist with the coaching of the 1st and 2nd XI Football teams. ____________________________________________ Adventurous Activities The Duke of Edinburgh Award and Combined Cadet Force (CCF) offer opportunities to get involved in challenging and enjoyable activities. Forest School one of our partner schools facilitates access to the CCF and will assist with Duke of Edinburgh Award. Both activities begin on Wednesday 17 September. ____________________________________________ Singing Singing performances at the House show have been one of the memorable highlights in the last two years. The academy has engaged a vocals coach and auditions are taking place as we begin to fulfil our ambitious plans for future musical performances. Regular singing practices take place at 3.15pm on Thursdays in room 4.08. _________________________________________________ Gloves Ceremony University of Sussex Trip On July 22, Clinton Ajayi, Ashley Small, Rafi Mannan, Ayat El-Deen and Nisha Rajesh joined Mr Weeks at the Lord Chief Justice's Court, at the Royal Courts of Justice, to attend the Worshipful Company of Glovers presentation of the leather embroidered Lord Chief's gloves to Lord Thomas. On their first Friday of term, all of Year 12 had a fantastic opportunity to think about their future with our whole year-group visit to the University of Sussex. Andrew Hall QC, Chairman of Kalisher, gave the speech on behalf of the Bar, while Fiona Woolf CBE, the Lord Mayor, attended in state, which really is quite something! Some of the RCJ judges, robed, stood on the Bench at either side in all their finery, including the Lord Chief Justice and Lord Leveson who famously wrote the Leveson Inquiry report on press ethics. Sixthformers also had a tour of the Royal Courts and Justice and relished in the opportunity to be taken right to the very heart and inner workings of the English legal system. Based in the beautiful Sussex Downs, on the outskirts of Brighton, Sussex is a highlyregarded redbrick university with a wide variety of course available for ambitious students. Students were given a great deal of freedom to engage with the lecture and demonstrations on offer. Some visited talks about specific subjects, some of which were entirely new to them, including Neuroscience and International Relations. The Mathematics courses were packed out, and the Science courses were all very popular. There was also a chance to learn more about life at university, especially a large campus university like Sussex, with tours of accommodation and the chance to see All our students were excellent ambassadors for LAE, with the Sussex staff commenting on how sensible, engaged and enthusiastic they all were. Throughout the next two years, LAE’s students will have the chance to visit more universities and build up the knowledge to make the right choice for their future. Upcoming Dates for your Diary _____________________________________________ Football: LAE vs. CLS Tuesday 23 September 2014 Brighton College Buddies visit LAE Wednesday 24 September 2014 Lord Evans’ Visit and Presentation Friday 26 September 2014 _____________________________________________
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