Gifted and Talented trip to
Warwick University
Saturday 12 December 2009
On Saturday Audrey Boum-Enock, Lewis Howlett, Sam Martin, Paul Burnell and Taya Staff and their families attended the GOAL induction day hosted by Warwick University.
The GOAL programme offers a fantastic range of activities and opportunities. They will be able to take part in events across the country and online, exploring familiar subjects or exciting new ways of learning with nationally and internationally recognised experts. They will be able to interact with fellow students from all over the world through the International Gateway for Gifted Youth.
We left school at 8am and arrived in Warwick with plenty of time to have a guided tour of the University campus. We visited the University’s library, student union, halls of residence and Arts Centre (complete with Cinema and Theatre!).
We then met a number of members of the staff from the University of Warwick and existing students were there for us to ask questions. The GOAL team then held workshops for the students, parents and teachers.
It was a most enjoyable and informative day. We spent the entire journey home discussing ideas for the Business Enterprise Competition – which is the first of many activities led by GOAL (the prize being a trip to NYC!). We’re now really looking forward to the next stage. Watch this space!
Miss C Thomas
model united nations
On Saturday 5th December, Robert Clack pupils took part in the Model United Nations conference on ‘child labour’ at Mulberry School for Girls in Whitechapel. In Model UN, pupils participate in simulations of official United Nations proceedings. The United Nations (UN) is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace. In Model UN, each pupil represents a particular nation within their committee. At the Mulberry School conference, the pupils were intent on creating resolutions to improve child labour conditions on a global level. Robert Clack pupils represented several UN member nations including China, Ethiopia, France, Mozambique, Nicaragua, South Africa and the United States of America.
Robert Clack enjoyed considerable success at this conference, finishing in second place out of the twenty-five schools that participated, just being edged out by Highgate Woods School for top honours. The participating Robert Clack pupils are deserving of much praise for the manner in which they prepared for, and ultimately performed in their respective committees. They represented our proud school community exceptionally well, employing strong skills in the areas of communication, leadership, diplomacy, cooperation and creativity. Several Robert Clack pupils were recognized for outstanding performances within their committees. Rob Jones, Shekhar Seebaluck and Reece Weaver all received ‘honourable mentions’ for their efforts while Audrey Boum-Enock earned ‘best delegate’ honours in her committee, which was made up of some of the most experienced pupils at the conference, including many sixth formers. It should also be mentioned that the four Robert Clack teachers who attended were in unanimous agreement that certain other participants deserved recognition for their efforts during the conference.
Many thanks are in order to Ms. Kleinfeld, Ms. McCleay and Mr. Parry for sacrificing a long Saturday to support our pupils at the conference. We’re now all very motivated to make the necessary steps to reclaim top honours at the next Model UN conference in summer.
Robert Clack win again in the 3rd Gifted and Talented Citizenship Challenge Final 2009
Once more, the school came top in the competition where 8 Year 9 Robert Clack pupils had to present and explain their ideas at the Barking council chambers, on how they would run and manage a community radio station for London Borough of Barking and Dagenham and its partners, and how they could make the radio station a big success among the people of Barking and Dagenham.
After less than 6 hours of brainstorming ideas and then preparing the presentation and speeches, the students had to present their ideas to 3 judges who work for the council. The other 2 schools in the final - Jo Richardson and Barking Abbey - gave intelligent and interesting speeches, but were not able to beat the defending champions who gave an outstanding performance.
In the end, the judges came to a decision and thought that everyone who took part had done well. They especially liked the fact that the Robert Clack pupils had analysed the competition, among other things, though, and awarded the winners with bags full of small prizes and a big trophy to show offtheir achievements. As well as this, the students have won math tickets to see Dagenham & Redbridge FC vs. Northampton FC on 6th February 2010, including a 3 course meal with the footballers, lots of signed goodies, and much, much more!
Congratulations go to Reece Weaver, Robbie Osborne, Aziz Akbali, Risan Nishori, Dafina Nishori, Rebecca Sobodu, Daisy Pritchard and Victoria
Rayment, for winning the Citizenship Challenge. Also, a special thanks to Miss Thomas - Gifted and Talented co-ordinator - and Mr Hicks for organising
the team and making the victory possible.
Well done, Robert Clack!
BY VICTORIA RAYMENT
Barking Debating Cup
On Thursday 5th March teams representing Eastbury, Lammas School and Robert Clack convened on Upper School to contest the Barking Debating Cup. University debaters from the London School of Economics and University College London were present to chair and judge debates. Eight teams took part in two rounds of debating.
The first motion was “This House would arm all police officers with guns”; two Robert Clack teams successfully proposed this motion and were matched against other teams that had won their first round debates.
The second motion stated “This House would deduct points from football clubs whose fans use racist chants”. In this round three Robert Clack teams emerged victorious, meaning we had the only two teams in the competition that were unbeaten. The team judged to have made the strongest arguments over the two debates was comprised of Reece Weaver, Nyasha Hove, Audrey Boum-Enoch and John Hattam. Robert Clack will compete in the London Championships in the Robert Koch Cup on 2nd April. Congratulations to all who took part in the very high standard of debate and our thanks to the Debate Mate organisation for providing judges and prizes for the event.
Mr Jenkins
Gifted and Talented Co-ordinator 2008-2009
The curriculum is outstanding and meets the needs of students extremely well. A wide range of vocational courses and work-related opportunities at Key Stage 4 offer helpful pathways into training and employment. Provision for personal, health, social and citizenship education is excellent and supports students' personal development successfully as well as providing exciting opportunities for developing enterprise and work-related skills.
