LAE gets the best ever results by a Sixth Form College in the UK

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
_____________________________________________

Download Report