Weekly Newsletters

It was also wonderful to see students with their parents attend. The aim was to connect young people to the opportunities are available in their local region post Year 11 (employment and educationally) and to subsequently to help them understand what is required to reach their goals.  I wish to share my gratitude to Mrs Ayre, Mrs Gregg and Mrs Patman for organising this event.  We have plans for more careers fairs and we are working hard to raise aspiration through the connection with local businesses and educational institutions to help everyone find their pathways in life.

Fiddle toys

I wish to inform you the fiddle toys being brought into school will not be allowed in classroom and staff have been instructed to remind students about this and confiscate if necessary.  If your child requires a fiddle device for clear and substantiated reasons then I respectfully ask you let the school know and we will allow this and we will communicate this to staff.  If the school already has a record allowing a fiddle device, then this will be respected.  Otherwise we reserve the right for anything that detracts from learning to not be part of the classroom environment and I know you will respect this as well.

100% Attendance

Congratulations to the following students for having 100% attendance over the last two terms

•          Lower School:           Jack, Holly
•          Aspire House:           Charlotte
•          Success House:       Justinas 
•          Integrity House:           Mia 
•          Excellence House       Tyler 

Changes to the school shop and uniform from September 2017

Please be advised from the 5 June all school uniform purchases will need to be made direct with the school’s uniform supplier.

You will be able to order through their website on www.chromasport.co.uk/shop/ken-stimpson and have the uniform delivered directly to your home or visit the store at Chroma Sport Unit 10, Wulfric Square, Bretton, Peterborough Cambridgeshire PE3 8RF.

Also from 5 June we will be introducing school skirts and trousers with an embroidered school logo on the garments for all students.  There is no extra charge for this and it will enable all parties to know that the uniform is officially approved.

Please note that the embroidered trouser and skirt is compulsory for all Year 7 students starting in September 2017 and for any student starting during the academic year.   We encourage families, where required to so, to purchase the new trouser and/or skirt when it is necessary to replace any skirts and trousers. 

Therefore if you need to buy your child a new garment please visit the website or store to purchase your item. These details will be published on the school website.

Bryan Erwin
Principal

This was targeted revision for 14 particular students with the aim of improving their performance in Maths. The students arrived bright eyed and bushy tailed not knowing what to expect and were given a diet of histograms, tree diagrams and much more! It was really pleasing to see the effort being put in by the students and impact was seen immediately with many improving on key areas of their personal learning checklists already. Particular praise must be given to Caitlin Hollowell who was this weeks Saturday Star.

Mr Hussain
Head of Faculty: Maths

Please find attached (in the letters home section) week 10 of the extraquestions students can do at home. Parents can also support with the attached mark schemes and examiners. Every week I will continue to attach five topics that regularly appear on examinations. There is also a Personal Learning Checklist so students can track what they feel they have mastered and what they need more help on. This can be used alongside Hegarty maths which has video tutorials to help students understand topics.

Extra revision classes will run every Monday lunchtime in 3U22 for all Year 11s.

Targeted revision classes for specific groups will take place after school as follows: 

• A1/B1 Monday (CTK),Thursday (JHY/NBN),
• A2/B2 Monday (CTK),  Thursday (THN),
• A3/B3 Monday (LDY), Wednesday (NBN), Thursdays (JCA),
• A4 Monday (CTK), 
• B4 Monday (ICC) and also Tuesday to Friday lunchtimes with (ICC)

On sale now: New specification revision resources at under half of the retail price. Revision guides £2.50, Revision Workbooks £2.50 (answers books £1) and Past papers books £2.50

Mr Donnelly
Mathematics KS3 Coordinator

Student Ambassadors:

In the last edition of the Student Shout, I took some time to introduce to you the seven Student Council members representing each of the Houses in the school. However, at the beginning of the academic year, a variety of departments around the school elected Subject Ambassadors, ranging from Year 7 to Post 16, who have worked tirelessly to promote and improve their subject/faculty.

Performing Arts have elected ambassadors, who have been at the centre of organising showcases, community concerts and open evenings, whilst showcasing to the public how incredible our Performing Arts Department is and just how enriched with talent and devotion It is. Furthermore, the charity ambassadors have helped the school raise substantial funds for charity by organising events for Children in Need and Red Nose Day such as fancy dress contests and Sixth form ‘Bake off’ alongside the popular non-uniform day.

Furthermore, a staggering 14 students from all year groups have dedicated so much of their time to the ICT faculty, being elected digital leaders. These 14 students have achieved so much during this past academic year, from campaigns to virtual tours, one of which has written the paragraph below to further explain their achievements: “As Digital Leaders, we work on a variety of projects across the school. Collectively we have made a new Virtual Tour for the Ken Stimpson Community School website to show parents and future students what the school facilities look like. It has proven useful for students to get an idea of the school campus to avoid getting lost. We presented an E-Safety assembly to each house throughout the week and promoted Safer Internet Week.

We have also made two videos for the Year 7 transition process to show what it is like as a day in the life of a Year 7 at Ken Stimpson Community School. We carried out Student interview panels for teachers applying for jobs at KSCS, not just within Computing but also other subjects!”

Similarly, representing the language ambassadors, Jenna Burns has written a piece to showcase their achievements throughout the year: “We have had many meetings and have discussed how to improve the accessibility to, and interest in languages. We visited William Law Primary school earlier this year to support the French activities going on for the students. Also, we have created plans to start a variety of language clubs in the next academic year at lunch times for both Italian and French students, which we hope will be a success. As the senior languages ambassador, I have also tried to explore languages even more myself and have taken on the role of mentoring a year 11 Italian students with the hopes of spreading my passion for languages and putting my interest to use.” In the future, we hope to ensure that each department has a strong group of ambassadors as the difference they can make is incredible. Hopefully, this is an opportunity that many of you are excited to get involved in.

Revision Techniques:

Finally, with exams approaching at lightning speed, I expect that many of you have prepared revision time tables. Below I have provided some timekeeping tips, that aim to ensure you get the most out of your exam time:

• Know what is expected of you before you go in - In some exams, such as English and Geography, the exam board do not expect you to answer all the questions. Before you go in, familiarise yourself with the format of exam papers and the topics you are required to answer.

• When revising, always practice questions by hand. Do a past paper a few days before and time it strictly – work out a way to write quickly and neatly so that you don’t waste your first exam cracking this.

• Be realistic - Don’t make the mistake of setting the scope of an answer too wide, and then not being able to finish it – something concise and complete will read much better than something broadly conceived and unfinished.

• In an exam divide your time up, plan of how long you need to spend on each question and Stick to it.

• Start with the questions you know you can do, this will mean you can build up your confidence and can end up with a much more realistic view on how much time you can spend on the harder questions at the end.

• Always PLAN long answers – this will enable you to write quickly and confidently.

Be calm, be confident and be prepared! Good Luck!

Laura Griffin
Post 16 Student

Thursday 11/05/2017

              D Of E Walk