Mental Health

6th March 2020Mr T Gava
What is mental health?

We all have mental health, just as we all have physical health. Being mentally healthy means that we feel good about ourselves, make and keep positive relationships with others and can feel and manage the full range of emotions.
These can range from happiness, excitement and curiosity through to less comfortable feelings such as anger, fear or sadness.
Good mental health allows us to cope with life’s ups and downs, to feel in control of our lives and to ask for help from others when we need support.

When do we cover mental health in our curriculum at Lister?
At Lister, we cover mental health through our curriculum with students in a range of ways:

  • PSHE lessons
  • Weekly Thought for the Week
  • Extended Tutor Time Sessions
Top Tips for Supporting Mental Health 
Connect
It’s clear that social relationships are critical for promoting wellbeing and for acting as a buffer against mental ill health for people of all ages. With this in mind, try to do something different today and make a connection.
  • Talk to someone instead of sending an email or a social media message.
  • Speak to someone new.
  • Ask how someone’s weekend was and really listen when they tell you.
  • Put five minutes aside to find out how someone really is.
  • Share the journey home with someone else.
Be active
Regular physical activity is associated with lower rates of depression and anxiety across all age groups.Today, why not get physical? Here are a few ideas:
  • Take the stairs not the lift
  • Go for a walk at lunchtime
  • Walk into work – perhaps with a friend – so you can ‘connect’ as well
  • Get off the bus one stop earlier than usual and walk the final part of your journey to work
  • Organise a sporting activity
  • Have a kick-about in a local park
  • Do some ‘easy exercise’, like stretching, before you leave for work in the morning
Take notice
Reminding yourself to ‘take notice’ can strengthen and broaden awareness. Take some time to enjoy the moment and the environment around you. Here are a few ideas:
  • Get a plant for your home or workspace
  • Have a ‘clear the clutter’ day
  • Take notice of how your peers or colleagues are feeling or acting
  • Take a different route on your journey to or from work or school
  • Visit a new place for lunch
Learn
Continued learning through life enhances self-esteem and encourages social interaction and a more active life. Why not learn something new today? Here are a few more ideas:
  • Find out something about your peers or colleagues
  • Sign up for a class
  • Read the news or a book
  • Set up a book club
  • Do a crossword or Sudoku
  • Research something you’ve always wondered about
  • Learn a new word.
Give
Individuals who report a greater interest in helping others are more likely to rate themselves as happy. Research into actions for promoting happiness has shown that committing an act of kindness once a week over a six-week period is associated with an increase in wellbeing.
Talk openly about mental health
Just as you might encourage people you care about to eat fruit and veg to keep their bodies healthy (and model this behaviour yourself), talk openly about, for example, staying connected with others or being physically active in order to take care of our minds.
 
Further links: 
by Tessa Hall

The Power of Poetry

26th February 2020Mr T Gava
Click to view full picture

The Poetry By Heart Competition has been a fantastic opportunity for me. I got the chance to learn about a poem, analyse it, get help from teachers in English lessons and then perform the poem in the Lister competition off by heart! It was memorable. And this reminded us of the great importance for poetry. Poetry is one of the universal methods of human expression and one of the most important of all written media for describing experiences. Indeed, poetry can teach you a lot!

There were performances from students from all year groups, musical performances and some great presenters. We got the chance to watch the different interpretations each student made of their poem. I believe this event was really important because it has helped students just like me, to boost our confidence and become more interested in poetry. We need more competitions like this because it would really help us in the future and to improve our communication skills.

The poem I choose for the competition was If by Rudyard Kipling because it’s a beautiful, inspirational and moving poem. It holds an important message for society. In this poem, the author Rudyard Kipling is talking to his son, he is trying to teach his son what he needs to do in order to be a “Man”, in other words, be someone who’s respected and seen as a role model in society. I truly believe that this poem is a guide to conquering life and everyone can learn something from it. For me personally, it’s a really special poem and that’s why I performed it.

My favourite poem though, is Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold. This is a poem that has been loved throughout decades because it is a dramatic monologue where the poet expresses his frustration and hopelessness of the modern chaotic world. He also expresses his view that this kind of situation where there is “neither joy, nor love, nor light, nor certitude, nor help for pain…”. It’s a truly moving poem.

What an exciting and unforgettable experience!

by Foujia Abdus Begum

Languages at Lister

22nd January 2020Mr T Gava

Languages at Lister

From Monday 13th to Friday 17th January, Lister Community School held its Language Week. Throughout this week, we had various competitions and activities run by staff and students. The aim was to shine a spotlight on languages and consider their importance.

Some exciting competitions such as the Quizlet World Languages Challenge, or Language Treasure hunt sparkled huge engagement, with many enthusiastic participants trying their very best when learning about new languages.

Additionally, students delivered language tasters and workshops where they would share their culture with other peers, introducing them to the basics of a new language and teaching them a part of their culture.

We were also fortunate to have visitors during the week. Students from Goldsmiths University treated students on the Mandarin Excellence Programme to a performance featuring traditional Chinese art forms. We were joined by students from Southern Road Primary for this very exciting event.

In addition, The Scholars Seminar for the week had a Languages focus and featured guest speaker Catriona Statham, a passionate linguist who speaks French, Spanish, Russian and Japanese who shared stories and reflections on how languages have enabled her to travel, meet people and succeed professionally.

This week was able to teach both students and teachers about how languages can unlock a whole new world and allow you to not only achieve more in life but also allow yourself to make new friends by sharing the same language.

Lister’s Languages Week was absolutely amazing and we can’t wait for it again next year!!

(Thanks to Chloe Letna)

Careers Update

4th December 2019Mr T Gava
 It has been a very busy term for the Careers team at Lister buzzing with exciting activities and events from supporting the East London Business Alliance in breaking a Guinness World Record to celebrating International Men’s Day at Pinsent Mason’s with English racing driver Nicolas Hamilton.

Twenty lucky Year 9 students helped break the Guinness World Record for the largest employability skills lesson earlier this term alongside hundreds of other students from schools across East London. They also worked with business volunteers on their interview skills with 92% of the students saying they felt better equipped to handle an interview and to be more creative in problem solving!

This term also saw the launch of the Inspiring Futures Programme in collaboration with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for 60 Year 7 students. The FCA will be working with these students across the course of the year to support them in building the key skills required in the workplace. In December we will also be launching another long term mentoring programme with One Million Mentors, partnering up Year 10 students with business mentors to support them through monthly meetings to achieve their goals.

Our second cohort of Green Apprentice students wrapped up their green projects this term working alongside construction giant Lendlease to promote ways of tackling environmental issues. Two students from the cohort were also given the chance to complete an exclusive work placement at Lendlease during the October half term.

The last few weeks of this term are also set to be busy with our first Super Learning Day seeing x110 Year 7 students visit Kidzania, x120 Year 8 students attend an insight visit at a company in Canary Wharf or the City and Year 11 participating in the annual Post-16 Options day with over 30 companies and post-16 providers scheduled to attend. Accenture will also be visiting Lister to work with Year 9 female students to promote ‘Women in Tech’ and to wrap up the term, 15 lucky Year 7 students have been invited by Barclays to a LifeSkills bowling event at the O2!

Journey to the Royal Albert Hall

29th November 2019Mr T Gava

Since the beginning of the Opera in 2017, I’ve been a part of the choir and drama and absolutely loved it. At first, there were only 3 songs, then it developed into 5, and only last year the drama was added. There was a lot of hard work involved including rehearsals before, after and during school times as well as a couple of Saturdays. Every rehearsal was exhausting, but it helped us develop our skills for our performances. We’ve performed in venues such as Stratford Theatre Royal, Southbank Centre and finally, Royal Albert Hall.

Royal Albert Hall was by far my favourite venue thanks to everyone that joined in, from the year 8 students, to the students from St. Julians who came from Portugal! It looked and sounded incredible to have so many voices joined as one. None of this would have been possible though without the help of all of the teachers and staff who volunteered to help us, and for them, I am truly grateful!!

From this experience, I have learnt that there are different ways of expressing your opinion, with creativity rather than riots and fights. With this opera we have been able to tell everyone what life is really like for those of us who live in Newham and that things like gang crime do exist, but that we can rise above them. Most importantly though, I have learnt that to reach your dreams you have to work hard and only then you will conquer your dreams, no matter what.

Written by Chloe Letna, Year 9.

Library Blog

14th October 2019Mr T Gava

Lister Library has been busier than ever this term! From when we open at 7:30am to our closing time of 5:00pm we are full of students making use of the books, chromebooks and space to complete their homework. We’re delighted that the library staff is now a team of three, with Mr Panteli joining me and Ms Connell for three days a week. We have been working hard to make sure all our new students know how to use the library and are meeting the Lister expectations around reading. With all the wonderful new stock we’ve recently acquired, our students have literally thousands of books to choose from for their daily twenty minutes of reading homework. I always say to students that it’s the best homework they’ll ever get; what could be better than escaping to a story of your own choosing?

We provide plenty of reading opportunities within the school day too, including DEAR. Introduced last year, DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) has been going from strength to strength at Lister. These fortnightly lessons give staff and students the chance to read a little around their subject. Here in the library we love supporting DEAR with resource provision, finding books, magazines, news articles and websites on all sorts of subjects. It’s fantastic to then go and see these resources used in DEAR lessons in creative and exciting ways.

This month is of course Black History Month and we are marking this in the library with a large display of relevant books both fiction and non-fiction. We also have a reading list full of suggestions accessible on our catalogue which you can find here: https://uk.accessit.online:443/lst00?serviceId=ExternalEvent&rlSn=2&rlKey=1604555025

Furthermore, we were lucky enough to be invited to Plaistow Library for a talk by acclaimed YA author Patrice Lawrence. We took forty year 9 students for this treat of an event. Patrice is an advocate for increased BAME representation in literature and she spoke passionately about the importance of all young people being able to see themselves in the books they read. It was a really inspiring talk for all of us there.

Ms Welton

Deputy Librarian

Eco-friendly Lister

4th October 2019Mr T Gava

Lister students last term were tasked with making a difference to their local community by carrying out a social action project to raise awareness of environmental issues. Working with Groundwork UK and mentors from Avison Young, the students volunteered their time to focus on the issues of food wastage and how the environment around them can impact on mental health. Four students from the cohort were awarded a paid work experience

placement with Avison Young, a global real estate firm and their efforts were also picked up by Barclays, who came in and spoke to the students before creating a short film to show at their Green Frontiers 2019 Conference. Chaired by Barclays CEO Jes Staley and Michael Bloomberg, the conference highlighted the difference the business world can make to their environment on a large scale and it all begins with the small changes individuals can make at home.
Naima Cheniya, Year 11, Hawking ‘I decided to join the programme because I wanted to see how young people can help the environment. Living in Newham for my whole life showed me the terrible decisions people make on a daily basis and how that has affected the environment including issues such as fly tipping, recycling etc. It affects not just our environment but also the rest of the world as well.
Working together with other students, I could see the different views coming together to look at ways we could make a difference to our environment. We decided on the issue of food wastage and wanted to raise awareness of how the local community can reduce this. We learnt how to use leftover food such as fruits or vegetables to reduce wastage and spent time educating the local community on ways they too can use leftover food. 
I think Lister can also do a lot to make our environment greener again. By raising awareness of these issues, students and staff can be encouraged to go out and make a difference by carrying out even the smallest of acts such as litter picking or planting more greenery…it’s as simple as that!’ 

This term, Lister students are continuing to take the climate emergency seriously. This has already been the focus of one of our ‘Thought for the Week’ sessions, and Lister was beautifully represented by six of our students at the Mayor’s Youth Assembly on this issue last month. At the same time as recognising the importance of raising awareness and a global approach to this most crucial topic, Lister students are also keen to change their own behaviour. Therefore the following will be our school focuses for this term:

  • MAKING SURE WE RECYCLE 100% OF OUR PLASTICS AND PAPER;
  • MAKING THE CANTEEN PLASTICS-FREE BY PHASING OUT BOTTLED WATER AND PUTTING IN MORE WATER FOUNTAINS;
  • WORKING WITH THE CANTEEN TO GET OUR STUDENTS TO APPRECIATE VEGETARIAN OPTIONS AND THUS REDUCE THEIR CARBON FOOTPRINT (WE MAY LATER TRY TO REDUCE THE AMOUNT OF RED MEAT BEING SERVED)
  • EDUCATING OUR STUDENTS, STAFF AND FAMILIES ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND HOW WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE;
  • WORK WITH NEWHAM COUNCIL TO TRY TO IMPROVE THE TRAFFIC SITUATION AROUND SCHOOL, THUS IMPROVING AIR QUALITY.

We will keep you posted with their efforts!

Maths News – October issue of The Möbius Strip out now! 

3rd October 2019Miss T Hall

October issue of The Möbius Strip out now!   Lister’s very own Mathematics newsletter.

Puzzles, Pythagoras’ theory explained, Why I love Maths, Mathematician Andrew Wiles, Fermat’s Last Theorem and more.

Please click on the links to see current and previous editions of the Mobius Strip

Current edition

July edition

June edition

**Every month a new newsletter will be published. We hope to fill it with mathematics news, tales from maths lessons, puzzles, problems to solve, interesting and beautiful facts from the maths world, useful mathematical tips, history of maths and the odd competition too.

Lister Students are Aiming ‘Higher’

27th September 2019Mr T Gava

The Scholars Programme at Lister Community School aims to close the gap between the opportunities given to high ability students from state schools like ours and their privately educated peers. We want to ensure that they are given experiences which will give them a competitive edge when pursuing further education and careers, and we want to provide them with the freedom to broaden their cultural capital and explore their own interests.

The ‘Higher Project’ is a fantastic opportunity for our students to expand their knowledge and skills. The Project requires students to complete a research project on a topic of their choice, this could take the form of an essay, an exhibition, a case study etc. Though students have a subject specific mentor to support them, the Project is largely independent and gives them the opportunity to complete a university-style assignment and engage with primary and secondary sources. The Higher Project is also the equivalent of a GCSE, which allows them to gain an additional qualification.

Topics can vary and this means that students can explore niche areas of interest. The Projects that are currently being completed range from the History of Art to changing attitudes towards Mental Health and the evolution of the NHS.

A year 10 student, currently in the middle of her project on the ‘History of Art’ has said ‘In general, the Higher Project is a great opportunity. It allows people to get a GCSE qualification out of a topic that they enjoy as well as helping them gain new skills that will help them in the future. For example, the Higher Project has helped me become more independent and allowed me to become more efficient.’

Students are excited and engaged by the research and eager to complete their Projects to the highest standard. On top of the research skills gained, students also improve their time management and work ethic. Students that have taken part in the Higher Project have also  been seen excelling in their classwork, proving that the Higher Project really does help our students to aim ‘higher’.

Tennis Triumphs

16th July 2019Mr T Gava
Tennis has been in full swing this summer at Lister. At the beginning of June our year 7’s and 8’s finished in 1st place in the London Youth Games U14’s indoor tennis event. This was a fantastic achievement as they were competing against the top placed schools from each borough of London. June also saw the conclusion of our annual Road to Wimbledon tennis competition. The standard was great and we had more entries than any previous year. Congratulations to Shanae and Abubakar for winning the trophies and qualifying for the Essex finals.
The Greenhouse Sports Tennis awards took place at the end of June. This is an annual event held to celebrate the successes of our participants over the past year. The event was held at the Greenhouse Sports Centre in  Westminister and our young people received a surprise treat when they got to meet a professional tennis player who is competing at this years Wimbledon! July has been just as busy. At the beginning of July a group of our most committed year 7’s went on a rewards trip to Wimbledon. We had fantastic seats on Court 1 and were lucky to get to watch Brit Heather Watson and recent Queens champion Feliciano Lopez. On July 4th a group of our aspiring tennis leaders helped umpire at the LYG primary schools tennis event. Our young people worked tirelessly and are well on their way to receiving their LTA tennis leader certifications. Finally July saw the inaugural staff & student mixed doubles tournament. The event was a great success with over 30 participants. Congratulations to Shanae, Darbaz, Mr T and Mr Mullard for winning the trophies and to team Shelley for being the top scoring House.