1. OFSTED SUCCESS
A very proud Mrs Bell!!
I am delighted to be able write to all
our parents/ carers, students, staff, governors and
partners in the community. By the time
you receive this newsletter, our college
community will all have received the Ofsted Inspection
Report which took place 12th
/13th
November 2008. Our
overall grade was GOOD with OUTSTANDING features.
I want to share with you all some quotes from the report:
John Kelly Girls’ Technology College provides its
students with a good quality education where
students thrive both academically and personally.
As one parent commented, ‘ I am really proud that
my daughter goes to this college, as it provides so
many opportunities for her to become an
independent adult in later life’.
‘A major strength of this college is its sense of
community…As one of the students commented,
‘one of the best things about this school is its
diversity’. This is one of the outstanding features of
this college’.
‘Care, guidance and support is outstanding…
Excellent transition arrangements ensures that
new students…..settle quickly and happily into
college life’.
‘Much of the college’s provision for extending
community links is innovative and well targeted to
meet the needs of the local population’.
It goes without saying that the overall judgement was
down to every single member of our JKGTC community
and the wider community of our South Brent Education
Improvement Partners, Central Brent Education
Improvement Partners and all our feeder primary
schools. During the inspection, many partners
supported us in particular, those who gave up their time
to come in to speak to our Lead Inspector:
Paola Riddle- Headteacher from Brentfield Primary
School, Tariq Ahmed – CBEIP Director, Rocky Dean-
Traveller Support Worker, Easter Russell – our
Inclusion Officer, Pat Harrison and Barbara
Hammond – Governors who were interviewed, Sue
Kayser – Chair of Governors who came in both to
greet the team and to support the Senior Leadership
Team during the feedback session and Margaret
Craig – the college School Improvement Partner
(SIP)
Thank you to all the parent/carers who returned their
questionnaires, the inspectors were overwhelmed by
your commitment and dedication to our college as well
as being truly amazed by your support of the college.
Many of our staff were selected for interviews as well as
the girls themselves, and everything that was said was
taken very seriously by the inspection team.
The four inspectors left our college very envious that
they were not working at JKGTC, and the whole
experience has left me feeling extremely proud of each
and every one of you.
I have been inundated with requests from girls who wish
to join the college, so as we enter our next stage of
working towards becoming OUTSTANDING!
YOU HAVE ALL MADE MRS BELL VERY PROUD!!
Well done to you all, thank you and I wish you all a very
merry Christmas.
Mrs Bell
Mosaic Awards Ceremony
Academic Mentoring
The Mosaic Network Group (part of the Business in the
Community and the Prince’s Charities) continues to work
with some of our Year 11 students. The professional
expertise and mentoring support they bring is invaluable.
On Wednesday 26th November HRH The Prince of
Wales, founder of Mosaic, was
joined by HRH Princess Badiya bint El Hassan of
Jordan, to celebrate the
achievements and positive contributions made to society
by young emerging
Muslim talent at the Mosaic Talent Awards at the Natural
History Museum.
The first of its kind, the evening was held to mark
Mosaic's inaugural
year and showcase the outstanding successes of the
finalists.
HRH Princess Badiya said of the Awards, "These
awards recognise the talent
that can be unlocked through the types of initiatives
Mosaic develops, and
I hope you will see for yourselves that this is very much
deserved."
Newsletter
December 2008

2. Ms Mngaza and Icram Serroukh (Deputy Head Girl)
attended the award ceremony.
This is Icram’s account of her meeting with His Royal
Highness Prince Charles.
“I felt extremely privileged to have received an invitation
to attend such a prestigious award ceremony. I enjoyed
the night immensely and to be amongst such amazing
people was a real honour. I was also lucky that His
Royal Highness took time to talk to us about the support
the college receives from the Mosaic mentoring group.
Before he spoke to us we were terrified but once he
started talking to us it was like we had known him for a
long time. I believe the award winners and all those
nominated were very deserving and I hope this
recognition continues with many award ceremonies
taking place in future.”
Icram Serroukh (Deputy Head girl Sixth Form
Jack Petchey Award Ceremony
November 2008
Cross Curricular French and Geography
Trip to France.
On Saturday 22nd
November forty two year 10 and 11
students went to North of France. They visited the
seaside town of Wimereux to look at the coast and river
mouth and at the way the town is protected by a sea wall
which is part of their GCSE Geography coursework, then
they visited the Christmas market in Lille .
We had an early start 5 o’clock in the morning and a late
return to school. It was very cold by the sea but some
girls managed to go on the beach with Mrs Sheehy.
The girls had a great time shopping and buying lots of
presents for their friends and family.
Mrs F Hemamda, Mrs E Sheehy, Mrs M Shah, Mrs P
Webber, Mrs F Amao and Mrs A Mngaza.
Year 9 Languages workshops with HSBC
Bank
On November the 28th
, all y9 students were involved in a
really exciting workshop with HSBC employees. They all
use languages in their working life and they talked to the
girls about the importance of languages in the world of
work.
The girls took part in different activities using languages
in work place scenarios.
All the girls had a good time and in their evaluation said
that they now understand the value of learning a
language. Many of them said they enjoyed learning
“Happy birthday” in Chinese and some even learnt a few
Italian words.
This was a worthwhile experience and we shall be
running this again next year.
Just to let you also know the year 9 this year are
following the GCSE course so could you support them
by buying them a dictionary and making sure that they
complete the homework set.
Winning pupils from John Kelly Girls’ and 13 other
secondary and special schools across Brent were
presented with medallions by the Mayor of Brent,
Councillor Ralph Fox, for their individual achievements at
the third Jack Petchey Achievement Awards on 6th
November 2008 at the Advait Cultural Centre, Wembley.
The students received their awards in front of their parents
and Mrs Bell and Mrs Webber.
We were all very proud of them.
Mrs Webber

3. Languages Spelling Bee Competition
On November the 18th
, ten students from year 7 went to
Capital City Academy for a spelling competition. They
competed against four other schools; John Kelly Boys,
Queen’s Park, Claremont and Capital City. The girls did
extremely well and knew how to spell all the words.
We came an honourable third.
Prior to the competition, the girls came during break,
lunch time and after school to practise their spellings.
Thank you to Nejla’s dad who came to support his
daughter and the school.
Well done to all of you.
Mrs Hemamda and Mrs Shah
Mock Council of the European Union
On Thursday 27th
November 2008 the college
participated in a Mock Council of the European Union in
the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The event was
organised by the British Council, the Foreign Office, the
Office of the European Commission in association with
the French Embassy and the cooperation of a number of
other European Embassies.
The event was aimed at 16-18 year olds and allowed
students to debate key EU issues as well as getting an
insight into the way member states participate in
decision-making in the EU.
The event was held in the prestigious Locarno Rooms of
the Foreign Office and its structure was this of a formal
EU meeting. Twenty eight schools participated, each
representing an EU country and the European
Commission.
John Kelly Girls’ Tech College represented Portugal.
Our two “ministers” were two of our sixth form girls -
Faduma Hassan and Fathima Haider.
The girls worked exceptionally well. They researched the
three issues that were going to be discussed on the day,
prepared notes and presentations and tried very hard to
present the Portuguese positions on the issues as
accurately as possible. The issues were:
• Climate Change
• Migration
• Food safety and Genetically Modified
Organisms (GMO)
After their initial research we contacted the Portuguese
Embassy. Our contact there, Silvia Raposo, gave us
invaluable information that helped consolidate the girls’
research and enabled them to present a very strong and
well structured case on the day of the event.
Neil Kinnock – the former Labour Party Leader and
current Chairman of the British Council, chaired the first
meeting and commented:
“You (the students) have discussed the issue in an
excellent manner! It is a privilege for me to have chaired
this “mock” council. Having been in many “real” ones,
this council is more diverse, livelier and considerably
better looking!!!”
This was a fantastic experience and I would like to thank
Faduma and Fathima for all their great effort and
excellent conduct on the day. They made the college
proud.
We would like to thank the Portuguese Embassy for the
information they gave us and Mrs Webber for insisting
we participate in the activity.
Mr E Kavieris

4. SSAT Autumn Conference
Ms. McCann and Ms. Mngaza attended the SSAT
meeting at the Ellen Wilkinson Specialist Science
College this Tuesday 2nd
December 2008. Both teachers
were proud to represent John Kelly and gave a
presentation on the STEM project (for which the Science
Department was awarded £10,000) and CPD project for
which the TDA have provided £12,000 funding.
The STEM project aims to offer innovative and exciting
events to give pupils positive experiences of Science,
Technology, Engineering and Maths. It also aims to build
teachers’ confidence and have long term impacts on
raising the achievement of students.
The CPD project is designed to explore innovative ways
to support professional development of teachers, outside
the traditional approach of sending them on courses.
The Science department has been able to improve
teaching practise, and the students say the lessons are
better!
We would like to thank the Science Club for sharing their
video for the presentation, and Nizba Khan & Nadia
Rachid for their student voice feedback. Thanks also to
Angus for technical help putting together the video clips
and presentation.
The Science Department would like to share these
projects with other departments as cross-curricular
events.
Ms McCann
BA Crest Award
The Science Faculty would like to congratulate the
following year 9 girls on achieving their BA Crest Bronze
Award from the British Association for the Advancement
of Science:
Madiya Amin, Samaira Ashraf, Zohra Ebrahimi, Sunna
Hussain, Iram Khan, Kamila Wafai, Zanera Zafar.
The students completed work on electromagnets, and
felt the project was fun and educational.
“I really enjoyed the project with the electromagnet, I
really learned a lot” Zohra Ebrahimi
“I really enjoyed this project. I would like to do a lot more
projects in the future, it was really interesting” Sunna
Hussain
“I learned a lot about electromagnets. I hope to do a
project in the future again” Madiya Amin
A-level TRIP sponsored by Aim Higher:
BODY WORLDS EXHIBITION at the O2
Ms Van der Walt, Mr Fabian and Mr Akintunde took 30
A-level Biology and Chemistry girls to see the Body
Worlds exhibition. The students learned about the
anatomy, physiology and health by viewing real human
bodies. The bodies have been preserved by a process
called plastination – a groundbreaking method for
preservation invented by Dr Gunther von Hagens in
1977.
Comment by one of the G&T students:
“A really enjoyable and educational travelling exhibition!
It is definitely worth seeing, especially if you are
fascinated by the intricacy of the human body and the
anatomical structures within.” Nagina Mangal
Ms Van Der Walt
Medical Ethics Master Class
Nobody ever thinks about the right
to live and the right to die when you
want to be a doctor. What does a
doctor do? Try to alleviate pain and
try to prolong the quality of lives’ of
patients. So why argue about who
dies? I was given the opportunity to
attend a Medical Ethics master class at the University of
London. During the class I learnt that patients always
come first; so if a patient says ‘I wish to die, the pain is
too much’- the doctor really has no right to object, if the
patient is of sound mentality and are mature enough to
make a decision.
The class helped me understand why Hannah Jones
was able to refuse a heart transplant - because she’d
rather die at home with her family where she would be
happy. It also prepared me for the dilemmas doctors
have to face on a regular basis and has opened my eyes
to the difficult ethical decisions I may have to face in my
chosen career.
Fareeda Sohrabi 13S
Year 9 Make a Mint

5. Ten students from Ms. Amao’s Year 9 Science class
took part in an event designed to inspire young people.
“Make a Mint” by NESTA took place on 20th
November
2008 and required students to come up with a product
and business plan, which was pitched to a team of
judges just like in Dragon’s Den. The John Kelly girls
ended up as the overall winners of the event, they
received trophies and the Science Department will get
£300 to buy new equipment. You can see a video of the
event at http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=SxYGj5oHjcM
The girls representing John Kelly were Fariha Blaaza,
Ayan Farah, Mariam Mahmoud, Colby Gnagbo, Alaa
Shamsi, Ethel Fuenzalida, Asha Abdullah, Safa Haji,
Yasmin Warsame and Kinga Pilarska.
“I loved the trip, it was hard work and challenging and
makes you think. You will know what hard work it is in
business” Fariha Blaaza
“I think the NESTA experience was one to never forget, I
totally enjoyed every moment. I was proud of myself for
taking part with my classmates, and our business was
very successful” Ayan Farah
“We all learned a lot about mints, and how the products
are made. I enjoyed making our own product, and
wining!” Kinga Pilarska
Cheer leading Competition in Brentwood.
On Saturday 29th
November JK Exclusives took part in
the Future Cheer Winter Wonderland Competition in
Brentwood.
The girls were fantastic and did John Kelly Girls proud!
The crowds roared as we performed both the pom
dance and the cheer dance.
JK Exclusives came fourth in the pom category and third
in the cheer. It was a great result and proved all the hard
work and training had paid off.
Well done girls!
Year 9 Girls Active Day
On Wednesday 3rd
December the whole of year 9 spent
the day at Willesden sports centre for Girls Active Day.
The day involved trying out lots of different activities that
we do not get to do at John Kelly. The activities included
tae-kwondo, boxercise, dance, cheerleading, tennis, ice
blading, skateboarding and a gym induction.
Each group had forty five minutes on five of the
activities. All the girls worked extremely hard and were
well and truly exhausted by the end of the day!
We hope you had fun during the day, if there are any
clubs that you would like to be started at school, come
and see Miss Naisbett in the PE office.
We hope the day has opened your eyes up to some of
the activities that are available to you and that we see
you taking GCSE PE next year!
Ms Naisbett
Launch Anti-Bullying Week, Diversity
–“Being different, belonging together”
Monday 17th
November saw the Brent Launch of Anti-
Bullying week at CSD Brentfield Road.
I attended with our two Brent student anti-bullying
council reps.
It was a great launch with over 100 staff and student
representatives from all education establishments in the
borough. The afternoon started with an inspiring talk
from Sophie Allen – Head teacher at Stonebridge
Primary School and presentations by four year 6
students about the work that they do to celebrate
diversity, working together to enable every member of
their school community to feel that they belong and are
valued.
We then split up into various workshops and students
looked at how they can help to promote anti-bullying
work within their schools and staff had a choice of 3
workshops:
- Bullying based on race, religion and culture
- Bulling of students with SEN/learning difficulties
- Tackling Homophobic bullying
Ms Ayles

6. Many schools were impressed that here at JKGTC
we have Peer Mentors which we train ourselves and
the use of the bully box and the fact that it is placed
in a prominent area of the school so students are
aware that we take bullying seriously. Some of the
secondary students want to take this idea back to
their school and start their own Peer Mentoring
programme.
Ms N Prussia (Learning Mentor)
Brent Active Citizens Project Volunteers
Awards ceremony
This event took place on Monday 1st
December 2008 at
Brent Town Hall.
The award winners were: Icram Serroukh and Premila
Kerai
Icram has represented John Kelly Girls' Technology
College at the Dollis Hill Safer Neighbourhood Ward
meetings for the last two years. She attends the
meetings once a month and has made many valuable
contributions, including helping to set up a website.
In college she was a volunteer co-tutor for a year 7 form.
She is always available to help at parent’s evenings, to
organise events and is an excellent ambassador for the
college.
Although Premila has now left John Kelly to attend
college she still returns every Tuesday as a voluntary
worker in the crêche. Her help is invaluable to the staff,
and she is willing to undertake any task. The children
look forward to seeing her every week because she is
kind caring and fun.
Congratulations to them both.
John Kelly Cookbook
I would like to extend a
massive thank you to all of you
who have contributed recipes for the
cookbook. All of them sound
delicious and I look forward
to trying them out. We are
still in need of more recipes
however, so please keep them coming in.
To celebrate the John Kelly half-centenary we intend to
design and publish a John Kelly Girls’ Cookbook, with
recipe contributions from staff, students, parents and
carers. The intention is to have the cookbook split into
sections by country, to celebrate the many cultures
represented at the College, and to be published by July.
Please donate any tried and tested recipes you would
like to be included in the cookbook; they do not have to
be typed or written out neatly as we will do that.
Many thanks.
Mr M Jayapal
Half-centenary Celebrations.
During January and February 2009 each year group will
be celebrating a decade in the school’s history. If you
yourself were at John Kelly or know somebody who
attended the school who would like to take part please
could you contact pw_mfl@jkgtc.brent.sch.uk as soon as
possible.
The school is also setting up a journalism club and they
will be putting together a bumper addition of the JKGTC
magazine. Contributions are welcome from any student-
past and present (these may include- short stories,
photographs, poetry, and photographs/profile of what
you are doing now, success stories and celebrations).
Any contributions you would like to make should be
emailed to kma_eng@jkgtc.brent.sch.uk (magazine
contributions)
We are also putting together an international JKGTC
cookbook. Please email any recipes etc to Mr Jaypal at
mja_math@jkgtc.brent.sch.uk
Angela Mngaza will be working with faculties on
recreating lessons from the past. If you were a student
at JKG at any time and would like to share experiences-
or are in possession of any artefacts that you feel would
be useful please let Angela know on
am_sci@jkgtc.brent.sch.uk
The International Cultural Fair through the decades will
take place on Saturday 4th
July. The PSA, Mrs Webber
and the Year Directors of Learning will provide you with
further information on how you can all contribute towards
this nearer the time.
Finally don’t forget that we will be hosting a magnificent
Banquet to mark our half centenary. This will take place
on Saturday July 11th
. We are hoping to give
opportunities to students past and present who may
wish to perform any special talents that they might have.
Please contact Sharon Hyare on
sh_emtap@jkgtc.brent.sch.uk if you want to contribute.
Tickets for this very special event will go on sale in
February. If you want to attend and would like to make
group bookings please email Sharon Hyare. Price of
tickets to be confirmed.
Finally please spread the word to anybody you know-
face book seems to be a good place!! and Friends
reunited. Together we can make this a year to
remember in the history of our very special school.
Mrs S Hyare

7. Library News
We are starting a drop in session for parents in the
library on Friday mornings, 9am-11am run by Zainab.
Come for a coffee and a chat. You can also get help with
form filling and advice or reading. If we do not speak
your language we will try and find someone who does.
Year 7 students have received their free books. We
have been filming students reading aloud for a
competition. Our seasonal tree has been covered with
suggestions for books for the library which we will try
and buy in the New Year.
We now have some board games available to use.
Next term we will be "Shadowing the Carnegie" If you
are very good at reading and would like to try reading
and discussing some unusual books see Mrs Geddes.
Ms Geddes
Parents/Carers Saturday
Beginners ICT and English
classes
In January we will be running a Beginners ICT and
English course for any interested parent/carers or
community members. This course will provide you with
a firm foundation of basic ICT and give you the
confidence to either seek employment or go on to take
accredited ICT courses.
The course will begin on Saturday 17th
January at
JKGTC. Each three hour lesson will cost £5.
If you are interested in joining please contact Sharon
Hyare immediately, either through your daughter or by
email sh_emtap@jkgtc.brent.sch.uk or leave a message
on 0208 452 4842 ext 232
Mrs S Hyare
Lost Property
Even thought winter is upon us we currently have 9
coats/jackets which have been handed into lost property
together with jumpers, gloves and pencil cases.
If your daughter has lost any items please ensure that
she asks if it has been handed in or telephone the
college on 020 8452 4842 between the hours of 10am to
3pm to check
Ms M Shepherd
Win a Voucher for Claire’s Accessories!
The College counsellors, Sue and Lesley, will be running
a poster competition.
We would like you to design a poster which will tell
students about the counselling service.
How can it help you?
Why might you come?
What difficulties might you want to talk about?
Watch out for more details at the beginning of next term.
Sue and Lesley
Environment News
Brent Council will be collecting Christmas Cards again
from schools within the Borough.
The money raised from this scheme helps the Woodland
Trust to create new woods and save existing ancient
woods in the UK which is very important for the
environment as trees absorb CO2 and help combat
global warming.
The school that collects the most cards will receive a
tree for their grounds and it would be great if we could
win, so I’m hoping we can improve the amount we
collected last year.
All greeting cards can be collected (birthday, Eid, Diwali
etc) so please send any cards with your daughter when
she returns to College in January.
Ms M Shepherd
Environment Officer
DIARY DATES
Monday 5th
January 2009
1st
day of term start: 8.35am
Tuesday 13th
January 2009
Year 11 Parent’s evening *NEW DATE
Wednesday 11th
February 2009
6th
Form Open Evening