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Recent Events
Here are some of the events that have happened recently at KAE.
AVATAR by Zeynep Topoyan
Last Tuesday (2nd March) I went to see Avatar with Emily and other students at the Vue Cinema in Shepherd's Bush. Avatar is a science fiction film set in about 2150 in Pandora, which is another planet. Pandora's people, called Avatars, look like humans but they are taller (about 3-4m) and their skin is blue. Pandora is a huge jungle and has a valuable mineral which humans want. Humans artificially grow Avatars so they can go into the aliens’ world to take this mineral. They join Pandora's people but one of the human Avatars falls in love with a real Avatar and he helps them against the humans. We watched it in 3-D. The scenery of Pandora is fantastic. There are interesting, vivid flowers and trees. The 3-D makes you feel that these flowers and trees are next to you and you can touch them easily. This is an awesome feeling. So basically, this is the most perfect science fiction film I have ever seen and I believe that it deserves every single award which it has got!
Valentine's Day
Saint Valentine's Day falls on February 14. It is the traditional day on which lovers express their love for each other; sending Valentine's cards or sweets. It is very common to give flowers on Valentine's Day. No one really knows the origin of Valentine's Day. Some people think that it originated from St. Valentine, a Roman who was killed on February 14, 269 A.D. for refusing to give up Christianity. Legend says that St. Valentine left a farewell note for the jailer's daughter, who had become his friend, and signed it "From Your Valentine".
What is love? By KAE students
‘Love is all we need, love is all we want, love is all we love.’-Elouisa and Ana Rita
‘Love is sleeping.’ – Sheng Cai
‘Love is unconditionally giving yourself away.’- Elisa and Edgard
‘Love is real, love is beautiful, love is life, love is necessary’ – Hulya and Koray
'Love is trust, kindness and all ways of happiness that can exist.’ – Stephanie, Vanessa, Camila and Carolina
Happy New Year!
How is the New Year celebrated around the world? Here, 3 KAE students describe their countries’ traditions.
Russia- by Kate Afanaseva
In my native town of St. Petersburg, we celebrate New Year like this: We visit parents and friends for 10 days and drink a lot with them. On December 31st, when the Cremlin clock strikes midnight, Russian people make a wish. Usually, we wish for a lot of money in the next year, good health for all our family members and a good career. We usually eat meat, caviar and a special salad called ‘Olivier’, and we drink a lot of champagne. After that, we set off fireworks.
Italy- by Caterina Talon
Italians named December 31st ‘La Fiesta di San Silvestro.’ Families and friends get together in the evening and spend a lot of time eating and waiting for the New Year. The typical food is mainly ‘cotechino‘ with ‘lenticchie’ (boiled pork sausage with lentils), which symbolizes money. The new year is celebrated with wine and bonfires. After midnight, people like going to public or private parties. It is traditional to wear red underwear because it will bring you good luck throughout the year!
Turkey- by Zeynep Topoyan
Many people in Turkey celebrate the end of the year by having a large family dinner with family and friends. We give each other small gifts after midnight. Some young people want to celebrate outside with their friends, especially in large cities like Istanbul. At these celebrations there is usually a concert, a fireworks display and dancing.
Bonfire Night! by Alessia Santi
On the 5th of November, Emily, a lot of other students and I went to see the fireworks at ‘Clapham Common’. In fact, every year on November the 5th, English people celebrate the old English tradition known as ‘Guy Fawkes’ night with bonfires and fireworks. We met in front of the school and then we took the Underground together. We got off at Clapham Common and then we walked to Clapham Common. There were a lot of different stalls where it was possible to buy food, drinks and to enjoy ourselves with jokes and games.
When we arrived there weren’t many people, but half and hour later the park became full of people. At 7:30 the fireworks began and all the people were very enthusiastic. All the people said ‘Ooooh, aaaaaaah!’ for each firework.
The fireworks were very beautiful and full of colours, especially at the end. At 8:00 the fireworks finished and we returned back home.
Halloween Party by Laura Gautier
On 30th October, KAE celebrated Halloween! And guess what? Johnny Depp’s double took part in the party! In fact, nearly 30 people came to All Bar One to celebrate this famous British event. Pirates, devils, witches, ghosts…I bet you wouldn’t be able to recognise who was who, students or teachers! We took a lot of funny pictures. What a good time we spent! It was an unforgettable party under the pouring city of London. Come and join us for the next event!
Notting Hill Carnival by Seydi Mihmanli
We had been looking forward to Notting Hill Carnival for months and finally, last weekend it happened. We really enjoyed watching the parade, with all the beautiful girls in amazing costumes. There were many different kinds of music, which I liked. Even though the carnival was very crowded, everyone looked like they had a good time. It was an experience I’ll never forget.
PETER PAN!!!
On 28th July twenty students and several teachers went to see Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens.
Everyone enjoyed the magical show. Read Giorgio’s review to find out more.
Staggering. This play gets to the core of what it means to be child. I wouldn’t have ever expected that a tent could accommodate such a thrilling, heartbreaking and sparkling show. A dreamy atmosphere is built on a circular stage that offers a good view and intimate interaction. I couldn’t imagine anything quite so breathtaking as the flight over London. You feel like you are moving through an infinite space, without barriers or constraints, guided only by your instinct. The excellent acting and the outstanding costumes help to be captivated throughout. I was really in “Neverland” while Peter Pan asked me to whisper “I do believe in fairies”. From that day I do.
Review by Giorgio Beltrame
Trip to Brighton
On Saturday, May 30th, 23 students and their teachers spent a fantastic day in the seaside town of Brighton. We enjoyed glorious weather, with bright, warm sunshine and not a cloud in the sky! We started the day with a tour of the Royal Pavillion, the beautiful seaside home of King George IV. After that we headed over to the seafront for some traditional British food (fish & chips, of course!) Then we spent many hours relaxing on the pebble beach, soaking up the sun, eating ice cream, chatting and even splashing around in the water (very refreshing to say the least!) It was an unforgettable trip for us all.
Jack The Ripper by Valentine -29 May 2009
Taking place around the areas of Brick Lane, Whitechapel and Spitalfields, the Jack the Ripper Tour takes you back to the time when the most frightening serial killer of the 19th century roamed the streets of East London. In 1888, a number of women were brutally murdered. The murderer was called ‘Jack the Ripper’. Nobody knows who the Ripper really was, but there have been many speculations. Our guide, who was very funny, led us into the heart of the story. He described some possible suspects (including Queen Victoria’s grandson!), and told lots of gory anecdotes and even sang us a nice little song about Victorian life in East London.
Romeo and Juliet by Vanessa-19 May 2009
Imagine you were in London in 1594. After a long day of hard work you decide to go to the theatre. On your way along the Thames you buy something to eat and you cross the bridge. Now you are outside the walls of the city in a dangerous area. Someone has recommended you Shakespeare’s new play and you go ahead to the Globe.
In that precise moment you don’t realise that you are witnessing one of the most memorable Shakespeare’s plays.
Now, come back to 2009. The weather in London is cloudy as usual, but you take the tube with your teacher and your school mates. In half an hour you are in front of the new Globe that looks just as the original one. You can feel something similar to what a londoner in Shakespeare’s time could experience. The music starts and the show goes on for more than two hours. Probably you can’t understand most of what they say, but it doesn’t matter. The cast is amazing and you have spent one of the most special afternoons in London.
The Museum of London
On April 16th, a group of KAE students and their teachers visited the Museum of London, near St. Paul’s Cathedral. This museum tells the history of the capital, spanning from prehistoric times to 1666. Among the highlights of the museum were an exhibit on the Great Fire of London, the bones of prehistoric animals and a reconstruction of a Roman house. At the end of the trip we all left with a little more knowledge of England’s capital.
Shakespeare's Globe
On April 8th, students at KAE toured Shakespeare’s Globe. This is a reconstruction of the original theatre in which Shakespeare’s plays were performed. On the tour, our guide told us about what London life was like in Shakespeare’s time (the late 1500’s). Theatres had to be built outside the city, because they were considered to be distractions from work, and theatre-goers were thought by the Church to be ‘unsavoury characters’! We were told how everything in the theatre has been built using the materials and methods used in Shakespeare’s time. Plays are still performed at the Globe, and everything is set up as it was nearly 500 years ago; the cheapest tickets are standing room only in front of the stage (one penny then, £5 now!), while the most expensive and best seats are in the ‘gentlemen’s rooms’ at the side of the stage. At the end of our tour, we had the opportunity to try our hand at acting, performing the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet. This was great fun and had everyone laughing!
Salsa!!!
Monday Evenings at the Gate Bar
Salsa on Monday evenings has really taken off in recent weeks, with many students making it a regular date in their diaries! The class takes place at The Gate Bar, right next door to the school. The class costs £5 for one hour (beginners) and £8 for two (beginners and intermediate). After the class people let lose on the dance floor and practise their moves.
KAE Party!!!!
Welcome Party!
We held a party in the school canteen on Wednesday 25th March to welcome our new Director of Studies, Carl. It was a great opportunity for students to mingle over lunch.
NOROUZ ( The Persian New Year)
Our Iranian students celebrated the New Year festival of Norouz with a night of traditional food and dance on 20th March.
The festival of Norouz represents a major part of the Iranian peoples’ rich culture and is one of the cornerstones of the eastern civilisations.
The origins of Norouz (New Day) are unknown, but references to it can be traced back to several thousand years predating the Achaemenid Dynasty (ca. 700 to 330 BC).
One of the rock reliefs of the staircases in Persepolis depicts a procession of Median dignitaries on their way to the festival of Norouz, carrying ceremonial and symbolic offerings. The basis of the rituals have remained remarkably intact for several thousand years, observed by vast populations living in Iran, Turkey, Iraq, Afghanistan and Central Asia, as well as ex-pat communities living through out the world.
The significant moment that starts the celebrations is when the earth goes through the spring equinox i.e. the exact moment when the earth has completed one revolution of the Sun, which is calculated with split second accuracy. (This year the transition time is on Friday 20th of March at 11:44:00 am)
The Zoroastrians of ancient Persia celebrated the creation of life by offering their god, Ahura Mazda, seven trays filled with symbolic objects representing truth, justice, good thoughts, good deeds, virtue, prosperity, generosity and immortality.
Today, the tradition is continued through the setting of a special table or spread with an arrangement of specific symbolic items, seven of which have names that start with the Persian letter Seen (s). These are:
Sabzeh - wheat, barley or lentil sprouts growing in a dish, symbolizing rebirth.
Samanu- a sweet pudding made from wheat germ, symbolizing affluence.
Senjed - The dried fruit of the lotus tree which represents love.
Seer - Meaning garlic in Persian, symbolizing medicine.
Seeb - Meaning apple in Persian, symbolizing beauty and health.
Somaq - Sumac berries, which represent the colour of the sun rise.
Serkeh - Meaning vinegar in Persian, symbolizing age and patience.
Sometimes a missing Sin is exchanged with another item starting with an S. For example:
Sonbol- the fragrant hyacinth flower (the coming of spring)
Sekkeh - Coins representing prosperity and wealth.
Other items on the table may include:
traditional Iranian pastries such as baghlava
dried nuts, berries and raisins that is called "Aajeel"
Lit candles (enlightenment and happiness)
A mirror decorated eggs, sometimes one for each member of the family (fertility)
A bowl with goldfish representing life.
A bowl of water with an orange in it (the earth floating in space)
Rose water for its magical cleansing powers
Holy books, or the books of great Persian poets, such as:
The Shahnama (by Ferdowsi), Divan of Hafez or Mathnavi (by Rumi).
British Museum
Shah Abbas
On the 12th March a group of twelve students and three teachers went to ‘Shah Abbas’ exhibition at the British Museum. Everyone found the exhibition really interesting and learnt a lot about the Iranian history and culture.
Covent Garden
On Wednesday 4th March a small group of students visited Covent Garden. They learnt a bit about its history and even had a look inside the Royal Opera House. They then had some free time for shopping.
Salsa!
On Monday 2nd March several of our students went to The Gate Bar for a salsa class. All the students picked up the moves very quickly, and got to practise their English with the other dancers. Everybody had a great time and we plan to make it a regular event. The class was filmed by the BBC so look out for us on tv!
Student Party at the Sports Cafe
On Friday 27th February several of our students attended a party at the Sports Café in Leicester Square. They had fun dancing and socialising.
Bowling!
On Thursday 26th February a group of students and a teacher went to bowling in Queensway. Everyone had fun competing and trying to score strikes!
Windsor Castle Pub
On Wednesday 25th February a small group of students ventured down the road to a traditional English pub. They tried out English beer and talked all about English culture.
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
On Tuesday 24th February a group of students and teachers went to see Woody Allen’s latest offering, ‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’. The film met mixed reviews from the students but it definitely put everyone in the mood to head to Barcelona for some sun!
Grease is the word!
On Wednesday 18th February a group of students and teachers went to see Grease the musical at the Piccadilly Theatre in London’s West End. Everybody had a great time dancing and singing along to the well known hits!
Slumdog Millionaire!
On Tuesday 17th February a group of students and teachers went to see the Oscar winning Slumdog Millionaire at the local Coronet Cinema. The amazing direction, music and costumes meant that everyone could take something away from the film, even if they didn’t understand every word!
Review of Slumdog Millionaire By Alan Santarelli
The Slumdog Millionaire’s screenplay is simple enough to condense it into a few words… Jamal is a young man from the slum of Mumbai, in India, who works for a big call-centre in the capital as a coffee boy. He is definitely alone because he is an orphan and neither his brother nor his love are sharing their life with him. The first is completely compromised with the India Mafia, and the girl he loved and lost is stuck in the villa of her boyfriend – who is Jamal’s brother’s boss. In order to be watched by his love the poor boy achieves the rare chance to play ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire?’- a popular quiz show. Despite his lack of education, Jamal is always right in his answers because each chapter of his life has a casual relation with the game show’s difficult questions. The plot until now is very foreseeable, and a bit banal. Each flashback of Jamal’s life tells us a bit more about him and the big changes to India. This is probably the most interesting aspect of Danny Boyle’s film, but the film’s structure isn’t very original.There is ‘good’ in one hand and ‘evil’ in the other hand, and in the middle is ‘love’. At the end, as usual, ‘good’ together with ‘love’, triumphs over everything. However, nothing is more foreseeable than the end. Jamal’s brother will pay his redemption with his life, but before that the girl runs away from her prison, thanks to his help. At the same time as his brother is killed, Jamal discovers that his lover is safe and luckily guesses the final question.The long and short of it is: ‘and they live happily every after with a huge sum of money’. I think Slumdog Millionaire is one of the thousand modern romantic stories of Cinderella and nothing more.
Student Party at the Zoo Bar!
On Friday 13th February we held a ‘Singles Night’ for students – just in time for Valentine’s Day. Everybody had a lot of fun boogying into the small hours!
Halloween Party
On 31 October students and teachers celebrated Halloween with a fancy dress party at All Bar One in Notting Hill Gate. Everyone had a great time, and enjoyed all the food and drinks. Although there were some fantastic fancy dress costumes, the obvious winner was Nicholas, with Yulia coming a very close second. Congratulations to them both! Click here to see some pictures of the party .
October - Imperial War Museum
This month all the KAE students and the teachers visited the Imperial War Museum, where they got a fascinating glimpse of what life was like for those affected by 20th century conflict. The students, accompanied by their teachers, explored the First World War galleries while answering questionnaires about the various displays. Starting with the origins and outbreak of the war, the tour continued with displays of soldiers’ equipment, letters from home, weapons of war, and examples of poetry and paintings inspired by the horrors of the fighting. Perhaps the most powerful feature of the exhibition was the Trench Experience- a walk-through recreation of a W.W.I. front line trench. Students experienced the sights, smells, sounds and emotions of trench warfare in this thought-provoking display. The tour of the gallery ended with a free discussion about what students had seen, felt and learned about the First World War. This Study Day truly proved to be a learning experience for us all.
September — National Gallery
In September KAE organised a trip to the world famous National Gallery, located in the centre of London overlooking Trafalgar Square. Having been fully prepared for the trip in the preceding lessons, the students were asked to answer a variety of questions on some of the gallery’s most famous paintings, which helped them to fully appreciate and understand some of the exhibits’ finer points. With the teachers on hand to help with any queries and later discuss what they had seen in the gallery coffee shop, the whole day added up to a thoroughly interesting and entertaining outing.
Summer School
View a selection of images from the Summer School.
River Thames day trip (Westminster to Greenwich)
A group of students and teachers enjoyed a river boat trip through the city of London, passing under Tower Bridge to Greenwich. The weather was bright and sunny so we stayed on the deck of the boat all the way, and had lunch in the restaurants and pubs of the old town of Greenwich, site of the famous Meridian line between east and west.
July — Science Museum
All the students from Kensington Academy went on an ‘adventure’ to the Science Museum in Kensington. They studiously filled in their questionnaires, answering questions about their fears, their finger prints and their facial symmetry! There was so much to see and even more buttons to press so everyone had a great time…. here’s to the next Study Day!
Picnic at Kensington Gardens
We had a great picnic last week – lots of students and teachers came along to enjoy the sun! We had just about enough energy left (after eating so much food) to play football and Frisbee! A big thank you to all the students who bought along the delicious homemade cakes and sweets!
June — Victoria & Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert museum has one of the largest collections of amazing artefacts from the world’s richest cultures. We got there via the special underground tunnel that links South Kensington tube station to the museum itself.
The students enjoyed looking at all the jewellery, photographs, ceramics, paintings, fashion, sculpture and thousands of other things from their countries. In fact, it was so enormous that we couldn’t see all of it in one day. We all took a relaxing break by the calming water feature in the sunshine, which was well deserved!
May — Tate Modern
We caught the tube into the City in order to look at London’s finest collection of contemporary art. Having walked past the second largest cathedral in the world (St Paul’s) and over the Millennium Bridge, we arrived at the huge building that is the Tate Modern.
Inside we spent the morning looking at and trying to understand the eclectic collection of modern art. Not all of it was to everyone’s taste, but with such a wide variety of exhibits – from a room full of white boxes, to a sculpture made of old tractor parts, to Monet’s ‘Lily Pond’ – I think everyone found something which captured their imagination!
April — National Portait Gallery
We enjoyed another Study Day in London, this time at the National Portrait Gallery. Many of our students had never visited the gallery before and so really enjoyed the outing. With so much to look at each class concentrated on the displays which interested them the most, and hopefully learnt a lot (about art, as well as English!)
March — Jack-The-Ripper Walk
On 2nd March our students enjoyed ‘Study Day’, their monthly opportunity to take learning outside the classroom. This month the topic was ‘Jack-The-Ripper’. The students, together with their teachers, completed a London Walk around the area the notorious killer struck. Having done their research students were aware of Jack-The-Ripper’s history, which made the walk all the more exciting and spooky, although luckily the bright sun seemed to keep the ghosts away!
Watch this space for details of next month’s Study Day.
Dinner at The Chelsea Bun
Some of our students and teachers headed down to the Kings Road in Chelsea for a get-together in a restaurant called ’The Chelsea Bun'. It was an excellent chance for the students (and teachers) to interact in a more relaxed setting, and everyone ate far too much and had a great time!
Student party at the Zoo Bar
Tickets cost £3 from reception but the party continued to 3am. We sampled cheap drinks and were dancing until late in this friendly bar/club in Piccadilly Circus.
Trip to The Millennium Bridge and the Tate Modern
We travelled by tube to Blackfriars and then crossed the infamous Millennium Bridge, stopping to have a look at St. Paul’s Cathedral. On the other side of the Thames is the Tate Modern, home to a wide variety of modern art.
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