Weekly Newsletters

The pain of regret and the pain of discipline….

There are two types of pain in life. The pain of regret and the pain of discipline. Regret is about I wish, I should and I could, meaning you cannot do anything about it.  It has happened and you are looking back with regret. Discipline is doing something about now, but it is uncomfortable and you have to push through the moments when it gets tough. 

The message this week is for all students, not just those starting their public examinations but everyone, to grasp the opportunity before it's too late.  The facilities, staff and opportunities available at our school are wonderful. I urge everyone to adopt the road of being disciplined, as it means you are doing something about your future.  The road to success cannot be paid on credit, it must be paid up front, otherwise the pain of regret is the only option.

Thank you for your engagement at the Post16 subject evening on Tuesday.  It was heartening to see and know that the final guidance before the examinations, from staff to students with their carers, was well received.

This week we have welcomed a number of visitors to enrich our PSHE and character building programme.  With acknowledgement to the organisation of Mrs Ayre, the Year 7 students were guided through team building and decision making options with the RAF.  Ms McNaughton provided a superb day of PSHE for our year 9 students events to raise awareness of a range of current topics within society. All of this is due to the dedication of staff to ensure that our students are enriched beyond just the GCSE end product. We are committed to developing young adults ready to add value to the world we live in.

Best wishes

Bryan Erwin
Principal

This is aimed at the best mathematicians in Year 11 across the country and just to be chosen to do this is high praise in itself. Students from years 9, 10 and 11 spent an hour answering high level Mathematical problems. I have previously published the results. Please see the photo attached of the certificate holders and the update on the students who progressed to a further challenge.

Students who sat the challenge were:

Year 11

• Harry Barnes (Gold) best in year, best in school.
• Marc Humphreys (Silver)
• Jay Davitt (Bronze)
• Danny Li (Bronze)
• Maxim Grimshaw ( Bronze)
• Ahmed Dafalla
• Adam Hurl (Bronze)
• Deryn Williams
• Roberto Scilli-Cooper

Year 10

• Thomas Fox (Gold) best in year
• Lewis Turnbull (Bronze) 
• Soraia Santos
• Jemma Thompson
• Aimee Robbins
• Nathan Williamson

Year 9

• Jalal Zamel (Bronze) best in year
• Patrikas Dzirka (Bronze)
• Michael Balasal
• Krisha Kukaneswaran

Further congratulations to Harry Barnes and Tom Fox whose result has gained them entry to a further challenge named the pink kangaroo. Even though they were unsuccessful in gaining certificates in this event they still scored well and Tom managed to turn the tables on Harry for the top score. For Tom being in year 10 this is extremely impressive.

Mr Donnelly
Teacher of Maths

As well as the countdown please find attached a PowerPoint about how to do a Maths exam, a lot of this could also apply to other subjects as well! Students should all hopefully have a structured revision schedule for all exams 

A great way of doing this is through the free PiXL Maths App which is available for download on all smartphones and can be accessed on laptops, desktop computers and iPads. We have been busy uploading students recent marks from their Maths PPEs onto the app and students can now work directly on their own individual areas of weakness. The app has excellent videos and PowerPoints to help students relearn topics with lots of questions to practice on too! If students have forgotten how to access the app or their login details they will need to see their class teacher.

Every week I have been sending out resources students can start using at home called the final countdown. There are only 17 teaching days to the first Maths exam on the 24th of May and revising gradually is much more effective than trying to cram in lots of information at the last minute. I am pleased to attach week 10 of the countdown in this edition of the newsletter. This is a set of resources of questions students can do at home with parental support (markschemes have also been added as well as examiners reports). Furthermore there is a PLC students can use to track their progress which can also be used alongside HegartyMaths (www.hegartymaths.com) and/or the PiXL Maths App. 

Please do feel free to email me personally for advice and more resources to help Year 11s revise at l.donnelly [at] kscs.org.uk. Together we can ensure our students are successful in the exams ahead. Depending on year halves and exam commitments there is only one lesson between maths papers so the revision sessions offered during May half term and the Saturday the 9th of June will be vital for students revision from predicted papers.

After school revision classes are ongoing with maths teachers available Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Mr Donnelly
Teacher of Maths

There are lots of resources to revise from in Student Workgroups which you can access remotely at home, and many more online. The revision guide also sums them up nicely.

Keep working hard; you will be improving your chances of getting a good grade with every session. Remember that Science is an important, respected subject. It opens doors in every field of work, so make your grades count!

Mrs Young
Science KS4 Coordinator

You've probably seen the glow created by a city in the distance. You may have heard birds singing the dawn chorus in the dead of night. However, there are now a handful of organisations that promote the prevention of light pollution and are exposing the problems caused.

The abundance of light pollution, especially in urban areas, prevents us from seeing all the beautiful star constellations during the night. It is a problem for astronomers as it interferes with their visibility through the atmosphere. 

In extremely urban areas, you will see a fairly light blanket during the night and this is called ‘sky-glow’. Another type of light pollution is 'light trespass', which is poor control of outdoor lights.

Light pollution has a serious effect on our health and the health of animals as well. The decrease in the visibility of stars and lighter nights massively affects our circadian rhythms. Circadian rhythms are highly dependent on light and darkness. These rhythms affect the behaviour of living organisms such as sleeping, mating or feeding. If circadian rhythms are disrupted, the normal behaviours of organisms are changed. Many animals navigate by the moon, so this is a particular problem for them. One example is baby sea turtles, who hatch and head into the sea straight away. The light from the moon assists them in that task. However, the baby turtles get confused by bright beach light illuminating the sea, resulting in the turtles going off in the wrong direction and dying. 

Light pollution is a growing problem as cities expand and evening businesses grow. We could soon be living in a world of full of daylight. Humans need the darkness to remain healthy. If people don’t get enough darkness they don't produce enough melatonin; a hormone that regulates sleep and wakefulness. You need this hormone to be able to regulate your circadian rhythms. We should take little steps to decrease our light emission. Try doing this by minimising garden lighting and remembering to turn off your light at night.

AS Biologists

Aspire are still in first place this week. We need to make the most of the time left for students to take every benefit of their lessons. I hope that students have returned well, however can I remind parents that we need medical documentation for illness for more than 2 days. For cases of sickness the student can return 24 hours after the last illness.

Good luck to Year 11 and Post 16 for their revision for the important exams which are fast approaching.

Mrs S Blackledge
Attendance Officer