Success in the making

Hackney pupils lay the foundations for Olympic success

Hackney’s here!

Hackney students a big hit on stage

When Alan met Auntie

Awards celebrate success of Hackney’s teaching community

• Read all about it! Trust employee wins journalism recognition

  A  member of The Learning Trust’s legal team has won national recognition for the quality of her reporting and writing skills.

  Kym Beeston, senior employment lawyer at The Learning Trust, has been named as one of the 19 amateur journalists long-listed in this year’s Guardian International Development Journalism Competition.

  The annual competition aims to raise public awareness of development issues and attracts hundreds of entries from professional journalists and aspiring writers. This year one of the themes was access to education for disabled children.

  In her article, Kym talks about the plight of disabled children in Haiti who are almost completely excluded from education, placing their situation in the wider context of a failing education system (the average Haitian child receives a total of just 2.6 years of schooling) and a society devastated by the recent earthquake.

  Kym decided to focus on Haiti after meeting people from the country whilst travelling last year.

  ‘The more I learned about the country and its problems, the more I felt it was something that needed to be written about,’ she said.

• Hackney pupils lay the foundations for Olympic success

  Pupils from Hackney primary schools Brook Community, Daubeney, Gainsborough and Jubilee were among 40 children praised for their commitment and leadership by double Olympic Gold medal winner Dame Kelly Holmes recently, at the graduation ceremony for the latest Olympic Park Construction Crew.

  The children were joined by 20 previous graduates of the scheme and the 40 children from primary schools in the Olympic Park host boroughs who will form the next Construction Crew in September.

  Being part of Construction Crew has given pupils the opportunity to see first-hand the progress being made at the Olympic site, and take part in workshops to promote leadership, responsibility and presentation skills. Alongside regular visits to the site and meetings with the project teams, they have helped start wetland planting and discussed the project with the Queen, the President of South Africa and the Mayor of London Boris Johnson.

  Dame Kelly said: ‘Construction Crew is another example of how London 2012 can motivate and inspire young people to get involved and develop their potential. It’s really impressive to see how the Construction Crew have challenged and pushed themselves and learned vital new skills.’

• Hackney’s here!

  Children from six Hackney schools have collaborated during June and July with six visual artists to create gigantic works of art for the exhibition Hackney’s Here!

  Exploring scale and what it means to live in Hackney in 2010, children and artists have been challenged to fill the 4,300 sq ft outdoor courtyard at SPACE with works of art which will demonstrate the ambitions and achievements of Hackney’s young school pupils.

  Children aged 3 to 9 from Berger, Lauriston, Morningside, St Dominic’s and Orchard primary schools, and Wentworth nursery have worked together with artists Chila Burnman, Polly Brannan, Helen Marshall, Leslie Kulesh, Harold Offeh and Charlie Woolley at SPACE to realize large scale art works. These  range from large concertina photo albums and costumes based on local buildings to enormous bunting and huge collages. Hackney’s Here! presents a celebration of Hackney’s creativity.

  The exhibition will run until July 3. For more information click here.

• Hackney students a big hit on stage

  Around 120 Hackney primary schoolchildren received rave reviews from a series of packed theatre audiences on June 29 and June 30 as they took part in a jazz opera about baseball and racial prejudice.

  Pupils from Kingsmead and Jubilee Primary Schools were performing in Hackney Music Development Trust’s production of Shadowball at the Mermaid Theatre, Blackfriars.

  The opera, by composer and pianist Julian Joseph and author Mike Phillips, tells the story of the struggles and triumphs of world class black athletes in the USA in the 1930s and 1940s who were excluded from Major League baseball; as well as their pioneering jazz compatriots.

  Over the past year, the children have worked on the project themes at school, received baseball training, and worked with the composer and writer to develop the words and music of the new opera.

  The production received a glowing review from  Evening Standard  critic Jack Massarik who heaped praise on the pupils from Kingsmead and Jubilee.  “These all-singing, all-strutting, all-acting boys and girls,” he wrote, “were the stars of the show. Director Jonathan Moore might have worked wonders with them but it was their energy, infectious enthusiasm and surprising rhythmic power that brought these numbers to life.”

• Summer Fete

  Title: Summer Fete
  Location: Grazebrook Primary School
  Description: Grazebrook primary school are holding the annual summer fete on Saturday 3rd July. Come along…fun for all the family!
  Start Date: 2010-07-02
  End Date: 2010-07-03