Weekly Newsletters

In the wars that have been and gone, hardship was sending your loved ones off to fight in a bloody war or separating children from their families.
I realise there is hardship in what we are being asked to do at this moment in time, but comparatively, it is not as great as the demands made on your grandparents or generations before them. Therefore, please abide by the governments requests and realise it will pass, hopefully this will be in the coming months.

I am going to send out weekly news or broadcast so we can keep in touch. We are a family and one that has been separated without choice.

I am grateful for the hard work of the staff at KSCS in keeping you busy via the huge range of activities they have uploaded or posted online.  I am particularly grateful to your Heads of Year (and associated staff) who have covered all of my key messages in their dedicated year group communication that follows.

Stay active, safe and be strong. 
Mr Erwin
 

Bryan Erwin
Principal

What a fun packed year we have had so far and so many more memories to make on your return, myself and Mrs Purdy cannot wait for that to happen.

I know most of you are taking time to do some fabulous work from home, please keep this up. We all love seeing the work you are producing under these circumstances, which I know is trying at times, you have all come so far since starting with us.

Remain positive and stay in touch with your family, friends and us at school via your means of technology, as this is key to maintaining a healthy mind. I am just on an email, if you need me for anything please do not hesitate to touch base with me.

Quote from Robert H Schuller - "Tough times never last, but tough people do". Remember this when things are difficult.

A little challenge for you all is to speak (via your technology) to at least 1 friend to check how they are. We may all say we are ok but underneath we may not be. Kindness will never be forgotten or wasted, it always makes a difference.

Keep well, keep safe and remain true to yourselves.

Mrs Read and Mrs Purdy
 

Mrs Read and Mrs Purdy
Year 7

A huge hello to all year 8 students. I hope you’re all keeping safe during this difficult and unprecedented time. Although we are facing uncertainty about the present time, this is also an opportunity for you to spend time with your immediate family and your friends using an array of media and technology we are so very fortunate to have. Please remain in contact with friends and extended family through these means as it enables you to stay in touch and although I appreciate it’s not the same as physically being with your friends, we are all so lucky to be able to communicate still, unlike myself when I was in year 8 a long time before the internet was even invented! 

Whilst you’re at home please take advantage of the huge number of resources you can still access such as Hegarty Maths, BBC Bitesize and various resources being sent out to you via Connect. Just because we’re not attending school it doesn’t mean your education needs to stop. Self motivation is a wonderful strength to have and I encourage you all to dig deep and find the motivation to continue learning, because your future is still very much there and will be determined by your strength and willingness to get up everyday and think ‘I can do this’. After all you’re the only one who can make you successful!! 

Keep an eye on your emails - we are sending out information for the pathways process, where you will be choosing which subjects you would like to study at GCSE and we will be sending out a range of challenges for you to get involved in too. Use connect, use the school Twitter and Facebook pages and stay involved in your school community from your own home. 
Stay safe and work hard. 

 

Mr Reed, Mr Swift and Mrs Nickerson. 
Year 8

I just wanted to email everyone, say hello and see how you are all doing? 
I bet some of you are really loving being off school, but some of you may be getting rather bored already? Especially if you are like my son George who is missing his friends and going out. It's all a bit strange at the moment and it's OK to feel a bit weird with everything. Everybody is adjusting and adapting to the new normal way of life (for the time being).

Please see on your email and on Connect a little weekly challenge i have for you. I will forward one each week to keep you busy.
Also, to keep you entertained during this time there are a number of cool websites out there with all sorts of stuff to keep you busy, both mentally and physically. Remember something is better than nothing.
 

PLEASE CHECK:

• The KSCS website for updates.
• Your personal school emails for messages.
• There is plenty of work on Connect set by your subject teachers.
• The school has a Facebook page with tons of info.
• The Art department now has its own Facebook page with some fun activities to keep you occupied.

There are also various other websites out there: 

• https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach
• https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize
• https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAxW1XT0iEJo0TYlRfn6rYQ (Daily PE With Joe Wicks at 9am)
• https://www.youtube.com/ 

Finally, there is the power of communication between one another, I hope and I am sure you are using this time to communicate with family and friends by phone, text or face time. It is SO important to keep in touch with people.

I'm on the other end of an email if you need anything, so please keep in touch :)
All the best. Stay inside, stay safe and stay posted.
 

Mr I Housley
Year 9

I am sure you are enjoying your time away (maybe starting to get a little bored now…).  Make sure you take the time to connect with friends and family via the various means of technology that is out there. 

One of the people I admire in history is John F. Kennedy.  He is quoted as saying:

"Change is the law of life.  And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future" - John F. Kennedy

We are in an ever-changing world.  Now is the perfect time to focus on your future.  Take opportunities to embrace change.  My challenge to you is to do something to make your future unrivalled.  This could be researching an area you have interest in, furthering your studies for future exams, starting a new fitness routine or learning to play an instrument.

We are always at the end of an email if you need anything. #staysafe

Miss Sothmann, Mrs Boughton and Mrs Pierce
Year 10

Just a brief message wishing you all well and hoping you are keeping safe.

I am sure that you are making the most of your unexpected time at home, but there is no substitute for connecting with people outside. Make sure that you are keeping in contact with your friends and extended family through the wonders of technology and please remember that all of your teachers and other KSCS staff are still here for you, we are just an email away. 

Hopefully you will have seen the new weekly activities that I emailed out and placed onto connect. Just a few ideas to keep everyone going. There are so many opportunities that have been made available to students at this time, please make the most of them. 

All Year 11 students who have made an application to the KSCS Sixth Form should now have had an interview with Mr Abbott (either in person or over the telephone). Students applying to a Further Education College should have been contacted by Mrs Ayre.  If this is not the case, please email either Mr Abbott (k.abbott [at] kscs.org.uk) or Mrs Ayre (a.ayre [at] kscs.org.uk).  Mr Abbott will be posting KSCS Post 16 offer letters on Friday afternoon and these should be with you early next week to confirm your place in the sixth form.
 

IMPORTANT PLEASE CHECK:

• The KSCS website for updates. 
• Your personal school emails for messages.
• Connect for work set by your subject teachers.
• Subject websites such as Hegarty Maths....
• The school Facebook page which has tons of info.

Year 11 now have their own Facebook page that we would like to promote. Please let us know what you would like to see on it.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us if there is anything you need. 
Please stay inside, stay safe and stay connected.

 

Ms Harvey and Mr Hussain

This is the first page of the book ‘Interesting Times’ by Sir Terry Pratchett, one of my favourite authors.  It references a Chinese curse/proverb and certainly sums up the current situation.  According to a sticker on the inside cover, the book was presented to me at my school’s Presentation Evening on 22 January 1997 when I would have been in Year 12.  Since then I’ve collected over 30 of Sir Terry’s Discworld novels and I look forward to reading the final novels he wrote before his untimely passing whilst the school is closed.

In the days before full time work and parenthood (plus Netflix and social media) I had far more time for reading and had forgotten the pleasure in “getting lost in a good book” until reading the Harry Potter novels with my son. I encourage all of you to use this time to READ, READ, READ!  Not just course texts but novels, comic books, magazines and newspapers. You will never have so much time to read and expand your minds…

This message is particularly prominent to our year 13 and 14 leavers.  Rather than cramming for exams that will no longer take place, you have a wonderful opportunity to read around your subjects.  Why not email your first choice universities and ask for a reading list?  
On the topic of universities, UCAS have issued some new dates to confirm your decisions (FIRM choice and INSURANCE choice) 

I know lots of you have already done this but, as previously advised, please contact either Mr Walji or myself before you make those all important final decisions.
We are more than happy to support you in making the correct decision.  It should go without saying that your Insurance choice should be lower than your Firm Choice (as if you don’t get into your first choice, you need a back up with lower points/grades!)

We still don’t know exactly how we will be asked to generate those final “teacher predictions”.  Rest assured that we will inform you what is happening as soon as Ofqual make the big announcement in the coming days.  However, if you have any PPE papers at home or anything that you feel your teachers need to consider when coming to their decisions, it will do you no harm in making contact with your subject teachers to bring this to their attention. 

For Year 12 students, I hope you are already reviewing your Personal Learning Checklists and reading ahead for next year’s content. Find Youtube videos or TED talks related to those new topics.  We call this “flipped learning” as you are learning the topics before your teacher actually teaches you them.  This will allow your A level learning to progress much faster as you will already have a head start!
Keep checking your school emails and Connect regularly to see what home learning your teachers are pushing out to you.  As attractive as it may seem, you cannot afford to take an additional 4 month holiday and you must work with us to ensure this valuable learning time is not wasted.
Whilst you are not seeing us day to day in person, we are still at the other end of a broadband connection and are more than happy to support you.
If in doubt, ask!  We’ll see you soon. 

#StaySafe    #WashYourHands    #StayAtHomeSaveLivesProtectOurNHS
 

Mr Abbott, Miss Kingston, Mr Walji and the P16 tutors
Post 16