Sutton High Sixth Form – May Highlights

Trip to V&A East

On Tuesday 5 May, to celebrate the end of their exams, Year 12 spent the day in East London visiting the V&A East Storehouse and V&A East Museum.

The Storehouse is a working museum store that’s open for the public to explore. The building is designed to get you closer to objects held in the V&A collections, and to the work of the museum, with curated mini displays across all three levels of Storehouse and a room housing David Bowie’s archive. On level 3 you can watch conservators at work in the conservation studio, via a glass overlook balcony and live feed screen, and this prompted one group of students to discuss both the importance of this type of work and the benefits of it being a job that will be AI proof in the future!

The V&A East Museum only opened on 18 April, so it was exciting to be amongst the first visitors! The collection is housed on five floors exploring how creativity changes the world, rooted in the communities and voices that are shaping global culture right now. At the museum we visited their inaugural exhibition, The Music is Black: A British Story. The exhibition traces British culture through Black British music from 1900 to now – featuring personal objects and powerful photography. While visiting the exhibition we were given a set of headphones to wear which played music to accompany the displays we were looking at as we moved around, making it a truly immersive experience.

The new Student Leadership Team spoke about The Music is Black in their assemblies this week and you can read their words below:

“Recently we went on a school trip to London, to a museum. But not just any museum – the V&A East.

Upon arrival, we weren’t sure what to expect, maybe just a silent room with artefacts and information to digest independently. But then we walked into an exhibition called “The Music Is Black.” We were kitted out with headphones topped with a tracker to follow our movements as we walked through the exhibition. Pairing the music performed with the actual outfits they performed them in, and the instruments used to compose the pieces, this exhibition was brought to life, immersing us in some of the most significant moments for black British music. We learnt how black British music hasn’t just influenced playlists. How artists like Stormzy or Skepta weren’t just making music. They were challenging systems and talking about inequality. Speaking up when no one else would.

The exhibition itself not only showed us the evolution of black British music, but also reminded viewers of the horrifying realities of colonialism and slavery. Upon entry, we observed a graphic showing the steep incline in ship voyages through the 16^th to 19^th century and read the 1633 British Royal charter legalising the trade of enslaved African people. This opening was a profound reminder that early protest music paved the way for the songs we hear today. We saw for ourselves how the Rock against Racism campaign emerged, founded in 1976 following Eric Clapton’s declaration to ‘Keep Britain White’ at a concert in Birmingham. Groups like The Specials, Madness and the Clash were the soundtrack to this reactionary cultural and political moment, uniting black and white music lovers in their common love for good music.

Something we found particularly fascinating was the array of objects, instruments and pieces of clothing that were integrated into the exhibition. Pieces like Stormzy’s union-jack stab-proof vest worn at Glastonbury in 2019, Lee Thompson from Madness’ red, white and blue saxophone, and a synthesiser used by ShyFX to create some of their most iconic tunes. These objects stood out to us because they and demonstrated the progression of black British music, and how culturally significant and recognisable they have become.

So, what does this have to do with us? Well, as your new student leadership team, we aim to embody some of these qualities like encouraging curiosity, innovation and trailblazing within our school community. We want every student to feel seen, heard and valued — whether you’re loud and confident or quiet and creative, your voice matters here with us. The exhibition was about noticing when something isn’t fair and giving people a voice. It’s about amplifying people who aren’t being heard and that’s exactly what we want to do this year. It was an excellent example of how culture changes when people speak up – and how systems change when people challenge them. We were shown that leadership isn’t about being the loudest, It’s about listening.”

Thank you Emily, Lucy, Gracie, Mavis and Ellie for your words.

Geography Fieldwork

On Wednesday 5 May the Year 12 Geography students had a day off timetable to start planning their Non-Examined Assessment, worth 20% of their A Level grade. As part of the day they were taken on a guided tour of the award winning Oru Space, a coworking, wellbeing and community hub in the centre of Sutton. Oru is a brilliant example of local small-scale regeneration project, which perfectly complements what our Geographers have been learning about in the classroom. Even more exciting than bringing Geography to life though, were the chickens in the rooftop garden!

Astrophysics Conference

“Won a prize, they have,” as Yoda might have said. “Celebrate, we must!” The stellar performance was by a group of our Year 12 physicists and computer scientists, who reached for the stars at this year’s GDST Astrophysics and Coding Conference. The event was held on 6^th May to honour Star Wars Day (“May the 4^th – get it?)

Heidi, Nabeela, Mavis, Alisa, Gayeong and Milcah were accompanied by Mr Sturdy not to a galaxy far, far away but the next best thing: Notting Hill and Ealing School, which had expertly organised a fantastic day of activities.

The girls listened like Jedi padawans to young, female research scientists talk about their work on how gravity waves shape the universe and the predictive power of quantum mechanics. They also took part in a workshop using real astronomical data to calculate the age of the universe. The highlight of the day was the competition element in which the squad split into groups to analyse data to identify exoplanets, plot the path of the International Space Station and design a method of collecting space junk. And by using our special SHS version of the Force, our girls managed to beat six other schools to win the top prize: a superb Lego model of the Mandalorian helmet for the latest iteration of the space epic franchise. The students had a great time at the event and made us all really proud!

Year 13s Last Lunch

Friday 8 May marked an important event in the Sixth Form calendar – the annual Last Lunch! This tradition sees the whole Sixth Form come together in the garden of Suffolk House for a picnic, before Year 13 A Level exams get fully underway. Form groups do an excellent job of planning their offerings for the lunch, and there is always a bit of competition to see which form group brings the best baked goods! We were lucky on the day that the weather held out for us and it was wonderful to see everyone relaxing and having fun together! After lunch Year 13 headed into the amphitheatre to take their final group photographs, with everyone having donned their school uniform for one final time. We are already looking forward to next year’s Last Lunch in our brand new Sixth Form building!

Higher Education Enrichment for Y12

With their Summer exams out of the way, Year 12 are now turning their minds to next steps, with their Enrichment lessons and form times focussing on post-18 planning for the remainder of the term. Under the expert guidance of Mrs Lenaghan they have started to explore different subjects, courses and apprenticeships using the Unifrog platform, ready to start filling in their UCAS forms after half-term. On Thursday 4 June, we will be taking all of Year 12 to the UCAS Discovery Fair at the University of East London, ahead of our UCAS Evening on the same day. Not only is this an excellent opportunity for students to speak directly to the universities and apprenticeship providers they are interested in but, perhaps even more importantly, it is a great source of many free university-branded bags and pens!