Issue 2 November 2011
NEWSLETTER Message from the Head Teacher Welcome to the second edition of our new look newsletter. I have some important news to share with you. After five happy and successful years I am sorry to be leaving Kingsbury School and Sports College at the end of the Spring term. I am moving to the headship of a bigger school, closer to home, in order to spend more time with my family. It has been a pleasure and a privilege to lead KSSC and I am extremely grateful to all members of the school community who have helped to make my time here so enjoyable. The governors are already working on appointing
93% Attendance = 3 weeks of lessons lost. Research shows that means a loss of a FULL GCSE grade across all subjects!
YOU do the maths: ATTENDANCE MATTERS!
my successor and I hope that the new Head Teacher will lead the school to even greater success. KSSC has made huge progress in the last five years and this is down to the hard work and support of students, staff, parents and the wider community. For this, I thank you and wish everyone connected with the school a very bright future. There is still much to do and it will be ‘business as usual’ until April. I look forward to working with you over the next few months as we continue to move the school forward. With very best wishes. Ms S Coulton - Headteacher
Attendance After an excellent start to the year, the figures have dropped slightly to 94.2% overall. Year 7 again are the best at 96.4%, come on the rest! May we remind
Truancy lateness Dentist Shopping Holidays
GCSEs GCSEs
parents/carers that we will NOT authorise any
GCSEs GCSEs
Holidays/Leave of Absence from school during termtime for any reason, exceptional or otherwise. T Clarke, Attendance Officer
Free School Meals
Dates for your diary
Many parents do not register for free school meals despite being eligible for them. It is important not just for the family but also for school because we get extra funding for staff and resources which in Friday 9th December turn helps the whole school. Due to the cashless system, students on free school meals are not identified in any way. Parents on some Friday 16th December benefits could qualify, including Income Based Job Seekers Allowance. If your circumstances have changed or you think you may qualWednesday 4th January ify, do not delay, contact Mrs Armitage at school straight away. J Armitage, Finance Officer This newsletter is also available online at www.kingsbury.bham.sch.uk. If you would like to receive newsletters by email in future please email: enquiry@kingsbury.bham.sch.uk with ‘Newsletter’ in the subject header. Kingsbury School and Sports College, Kingsbury Road, Erdington, Birmingham, B24 8RE Web: www.kingsbury.bham.sch.uk
Enrichment Day all year groups Start of Christmas holidays First day of Spring term
@KingsburySSC
Phone: 0121 373 1080 Fax: 0121 306 4878
Email: enquiry@kingsbury.bham.sch.uk
FOCUS ON STUDENTS KSSC Dancers off to London Year 11 students Tinu Shodeinde, Chantelle Murrain and Heather Campbell are off to The Royal Opera House to work in the studios of The Royal Ballet! Tinu and Shodeinde were successful in their application for a place in the first round of the prestigious YDE Young Creatives programme for budding young choreographers. More about this in the next issue. Well done and good luck girls! C Palethorpe, Dance teacher.
Student Leadership Group We provide the link between the Student Council and the School Leadership Team, and take on lots of extra duties to support the school and other students. It helps our leadership skills for the future too. We will keep everyone posted via the website blog, and you can follow us on Twitter @KSSCStudentleaders. The Student Leadership Group: Chantelle, Tinu, Simba, Molly, Nashwan and Oliver.
Black History Celebration Parents, staff and guests were kept entertained by a fantastic display of skills at our event on 3rd November. The theme was ‘Africa Calling’ and included dance, music, drama, art and food. Young Enterprise sold smoothies and Mendhi, and local Year 11 students Izaac Steadman & Year 10 dancers (photo courtesy of Tyburn Mail) artists and students provided a Paige Clarke Jeffers (Tyburn Mail) display in the library. Thanks to Wade and Angela from Cleone Foods for their donation of Caribbean Patties, and to all the students and staff whose hard work made this such a great evening. L Millward, Faculty Leader, Performance. Create a video to tell the story of the birth of Jesus in your own way, and you could win £1000! Entries can be between 30 seconds and 3 minutes. Judges include Michelle Williams (Destiny’s Child) and Julie Etchingham (ITV News). Closing date is 2nd December. For details go to www.nativityfactor.com/ or see Mrs Weir, Curriculum Leader, RE. KSSC is now a Lead School for Gifted and Talented. The term ‘Gifted’ applies to students who excel in subjects such as English, Maths and Geography, and ‘Talented’ students excel in activities such as sport, cookery or art. Potential G&T year 7 students found out more recently in a workshop to help them understand what being G&T means and how they can challenge themselves to develop their potential. They worked on group challenges linked to literacy and creativity, creating stories from patterns and sketches and incorporating academic language into their work. Year 7 staff will soon nominate students who they believe are gifted and talented, and those who receive several nominations will go onto the school’s G&T register. E Thom, Director Teaching and Learning Three year 9 students recently attended a creative writing workshop at Great Barr School, with Birmingham Young Poet Laureate Jordan Westcarr and music journalist Matilda Egere-Cooper. The students created a story, inspired by the lyrics of ‘No regrets’ by Dappy of N-Dubz! Student Daniel Minchin sums up the day: “The trip was great. We learned about planning stories and different persuasive techniques to help with our English. Matilda helped us a lot. It also helped to talk to other people to help us. Thanks to Mrs Atherton for taking us.” M Atherton, English teacher
Together we can
FOCUS ON ENGLISH & MEDIA FACULTY The English and Media faculty delivers National Curriculum English in Years 7 and 8. In Year 9, pupils start preparing for courses in English GCSE, English Language and Literature (combined) GCSE, Media Studies GCSE, Film Studies GCSE or Media Studies OCR National. In all subjects across key stages, speaking and listening, reading and writing skills are the key to a pupil’s success. Extra -curricular activities encourage pupils to showcase their skills beyond the classroom and help establish themselves in the ‘real’ world. Students are rewarded regularly for their work and a department rewards system links to the school PACER programme and VIVO miles. S Hall, Faculty Leader, English and Media
Curriculum News For their work on biographies, year 7 students invited visitors to interview in preparation for composing a magazine article about their visitor. They experienced their first speaking and listening assessment by presenting a shoebox of items linked to a person they admire. School librarian Mrs Bowley ran a competition for National Poetry Day. The key stage 3 winners were: Jessica Ancill, Sabah Aslam, Seren Skeete, Lasharna Barnett and Meenal Hanif. For year 10, controlled assessments have replaced coursework; tasks are completed in class in exam conditions. Pupils must revise work thoroughly to be successful. They have completed work on the poetry of Wilfred Owen and are continuing with Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’. The next unit of study will be John Steinbeck’s ‘Of Mice Year 7 student Clarise Irish-McLeod with her shoebox and Men’. Congratulations to the year 11 pupils who achieved their target grades following exams in May and who have gone on to complete a second GCSE subject related to English. Exam re-sits for some pupils to reach or improve their target grades take place the 10th and 18th of January. We wish them good luck. M Atherton, English teacher Come along to Debate Mate, Thursdays, 3-4pm in the library. You could have the chance to win a laptop!
KSSC Radio Watch this space for the official launch of the school’s radio station!
Debating increases confidence in speaking, and develops skills which are also crucial outside the classroom, to succeed later in life.
If you would like to join the radio team please see Mr Sturk for details. KSSC Radio Leader Dalton Demarete Smith
Most importantly, debating is fun! For more information see Miss Chmielewska (Room 77) or Miss Luscombe (Room 8)
Tuesdays from 3:10-4:10 in the Library. Watch Year 11 Media students recently out for posters produced videos to raise awareness telling you what is coming soon! Pease see Mrs Bowley of the role of the school’s Governing for more information Body. The governors gave feedback and selected the video that they Website Find us online at: thought addressed the brief best. The winning production www.kingsbury.sch.uk/english or click on the will be used around school and will be on the website. Congratulations to Chad Greenway, Aaron Sawbridge, tab ‘Be ENGspired!’ on the right hand side of Waqar Kiyani, Brad Phillips, Reale Currivan and Terrel the website, for information and resources to support Semper. M Sturk, Lead practitioner English & Media students.
Governing Body Video
Together we can
FOCUS ON COMMUNITY Sports News Year 7 and 8 have been playing in a Netball tournament through the Kingsbury Sports Partnership. The Year 8 Team are: Ellen Ratcliffe (Captain), Precious Iriabe, Jeritza Bedminster, Fatima Sajid, Abigail Pritchard, Hawzhim Khalis and Billie Ellis Year 7 Squad are: Maddie Bradley (Captain), Hannah Taylor, Gemma McNamara, Halima Rahman, Sharicia Harris, Aleema Ahmed, Josie Ehrdom, Talitha Thompson, Leah Lynn, Destiny Reuter, Elleese Mulla and Tiannah Edwards.
10am-1pm
Netball Club is on every Wednesday from 3.00 - 4.00pm and matches take place most weeks. Our end of year trip is to Planet Ice to go Ice Skating at the end of November. New players are welcome. Year 9/10 Girls will be playing Football on Tuesdays after school against local schools here at KSSC. Look out for the results in the next edition or on the website. L Millward, Faculty Leader, Performance.
Parents Welcome Street Dance, Hip Hop & Break Dance Leisure Centre, Mondays 6.30 - 7.30pm 12 - 16 year olds £3 per class Entrance via the Atrium. T Stevens, Leisure Centre Manager
Coming soon: The next KSSC drama production will be The Little Shop Of Horrors, to take place next term. More about this in future issues. J Nordone, Teacher in charge of Drama
Fundraising Activities Staff and students at KSSC have big hearts! Here are just some of the recent activities they have taken part in to raise funds for worthy causes: Year 11 students Lucy Avery and Katie Clarke spent October raising funds for Breast Cancer Awareness, culminating in Head Boy Oliver Barrett dressing as Head Girl for the day! They raised £200. E Thom, Director teaching and learning. Year 11 students Oliver Barrett and Katie Clarke
Students in the Transition Learning Centre took part in a sponsored finger spellathon using British Sign Language, for the National Deaf Children's Society. They greeted the audience and spoke to visitors all using BSL. As a result they raised £25 and improved their spelling age too! Ozair Khan 8G E Ivery Transition Learning Centre Manager
Movember is responsible for the sprouting moustaches on the faces of Ready, steady, grow! Last year’s moustache growing contingent.
male staff at KSSC! For the third year running, we are growing wacky ‘taches for a month to raise funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and other cancers that affect men. Please support us! S Elia, Achievement Leader Year 8
Together we can