Headteacher's Blog Archives - The Kingsway School

Headteacher’s Blog – Week 32

20th May 202022nd May 2020

Transition isn’t always the easiest thing at the best of times; change can be worrying. There also is increased anxiety at the moment but we are doing the very best we can to welcome our new students and their families. Part of this has been regular communication with both the students and their parent/carers. We have also been working hard on a new transition resource, developed by PIXL, called ‘Be Awesome Go Big’. This 9 week programme will see the students working through a number of issues to prepare them in advance of September. We hope that this will support them during this time and that the Class of 2025 are ready and excited to join us at The Kingsway School.

Tuesday 19th May 2020

It’s been another busy day today at ‘Kingsway HQ’ and it feels like school is getting that tiny bit busier as each week goes by. Thanks to Mr Sadler, Miss Burrows, Miss Owen, Miss West, Mr Fraser and the ever-present Mr Carr for working with the 11 students we had in school today.

It seems like things are changing at a rapid pace and following the government’s advice last week, we are also beginning to see some of our other staff pop in from time to time as they come and work on the tasks that have been tricky to do from home (all from a safe distance of course!). As the number of students we are providing Covid provision for also creeps up, we are having to think on our feet and ensure that we are keeping our class sizes down, which meant that we had spread our 11 students across two classrooms to make double sure that social distancing was being fully observed.

Today started as every day should with some reading and some exercise. Following their morning read in B25 and B24, Mr Fraser took our ever growing band of students to the sportshall for some basketball. The middle of the day was dedicated to Maths and the students were able to use mathswatch, whilst having their maths teachers on hand to support where needed. The students also got a chance to increase their maths Cultural Capital and learn about the unsung heroes in the movie ‘Hidden Figures’. The day ended with some more physical activity when the students were taken out into the warm May sunshine for an afternoon of games on the field.

Wednesday 20th May 2020

Thanks to Miss Wildgoose, Miss Burgess and Miss Daley for today’s activities.

Given a PE teacher was leading the morning session, it’s no surprise there was a lot of sport involved. Basketball, table tennis, badminton and treadmill work were all involved. In the past few weeks, we’ve played friendly matches but today, the competition was on! There was frustration and perspiration but Callum and Aidan came out as the winners.

As the weather was so gorgeous, we extended our outside time to an hour, and had some frisbee matches. Miss Daley and Mr Carr gave it their all but were exhausted by the end!

The afternoon brought some storyboarding led by Miss Daley. Students watched some clips of The Simpsons and then had to retell the story but adding a twist.

We ended the day with a quiz on the countries of Europe. Mr Carr is determined they will learn them all by the summer holidays!

Thursday 21st May 2020

We pride ourselves with being a school that supports our local community, and so we were delighted to hear of a new project that is underway, which is another fantastic way for the wider community to connect.

Cheadle FM is a new radio show and they are looking for participants from the community! The station is launching soon and part of the programme will be a show called ’Reflections.’ They are looking for people from the area to narrate their anecdotes and stories from their childhood, teens or twenties. They'd also like to know, what makes living in Cheadle special for you? We’re certain that with our Broadway campus being 80 this year that The Kingsway School is likely to be part of the memories and we would love you to share them.

These can be funny, serious, but hopefully uplifting.

If you are able to get involved please follow these simple steps:

Record your memory from the past on your iPhone/ android device.
Send it to the email address below, make sure you include the title of any songs from the period of your memory to be played.
Tune in to Cheadlefm and enjoy the show.

Send your recording to: reflections@cheadleheritage.online

Thursday in school saw Miss Bowers and Mr Burniston taking the group, with support from Mr Carr and Mr Randall. After the morning read (we’ve finished the book!) we got stuck into a murder mystery set by Miss Bowers. The students were given a lot of evidence to examine and had lots of questions, as well as some interesting answers!

In the afternoon, we took part in a geography quiz… with a difference. Mr Burniston gave each student a 4 figure coordinate and they then had to race to that location and answer the quiz question they found. Tom was the rightful winner with 13 questions answered.

We finished the day with another quiz… this time about TV shows and Dougie came out on top with 15 out of 15!

Friday 22nd May 2020

Our students have really risen to the challenge this half term and gone above and beyond, adapting to remote learning and new systems. We are extremely proud of their resilience. As you will be aware, we have undertaken a student voice activity to gauge problems and to look at how students are engaging and interacting with the work at this time. Through this, we have seen that students appreciate the improvement in the clarity of the deadlines and scheduling of work. Student wellbeing continues to be one of our priorities and the feedback from a majority of students was that whilst the work was appropriately challenging, difficulties with sharing remote devices, juggling deadlines and amount of content was causing anxiety, with pupils feeling overwhelmed. As such, we have revised the timetables to make this more manageable for families and copies of these timetables for Key Stage 3 (Years 7-9) and Key Stage 4 (Year 10) have been shared on social media, the school website and via announcements on Class Charts and Frog. These will take effect from Monday 1st June.

Year	RSL Name / School Email Address
7	Ms Hulance - e.hulance@kingsway.stockport.sch.uk
8	Mrs Bradley - k.bradley@kingsway.stockport.sch.uk
9	Ms Clarke - k.clarke@kingsway.stockport.sch.uk
10	Dr Holdsworth - l.holdsworth@kingsway.stockport.sch.uk

Headteacher’s Blog – Week 31

11th May 202015th May 2020

Monday 11th May 2020

I hope you are reading this having had a safe and restful weekend. Whilst some of the messages over the last few days were less than totally clear, you can be assured that in school, the strictest social distancing rules and best practices are being adhered to.

We had 6 students today, and thanks to Miss Hulance, Mrs Bradley and Mrs Rouse for their supervision and support today.

After our regular morning read of Billionaire Boy, Miss Hulance led the class in a tense murder mystery activity. Each student played a different character and presented their story to the group. Everyone then filled in a motive/alibi matrix, to help deduce who the killer was. Despite some interesting accusations, the perpetrator was eventually found out and brought to justice!

The afternoon was dedicated to maths work. Mrs Bradley gave students the opportunity to spend some time on their google classroom work, which is set by their class teachers. Having time to complete this in school means any queries or problems the students encounter can be dealt with quickly and easily. We also logged on to some of the great maths games programs we use for some mental arithmetic and times table revision.

After lunch, the group let their creative (and competitive) side out as we invented a new outdoor game, along the lines of dodgeball but with an elaborate scoring system and it certainly got the blood pumping and energy levels high for our mile walk. Today we diverted to Brookfields Park to avoid potentially busy pavements.

The students spent the last hour split between working on their hobbies presentation and an exercise bike competition in the sports hall, seeing who could cycle the furthest in 1 minute.

Tuesday 12th May 2020

Thank you to Mrs Healey, Mrs Gray and Mrs Burgess for supervising today’s sessions.

Mrs Healey started the day with some reading time; we are very near to finishing our David Walliams book, so next week we will choose another book to read as a group. Some students have chosen to read individually as Dougie shows us here, tearing through his 3rd Roald Dahl book this week!

Basketball was our morning exercise, followed by the first learning session of the day. Mrs. Healey set the challenge question of ‘How does Benjamin Zephaniah challenge assumptions and expectations in his poetry?’ We started with discussion around student’s own experiences with poetry and then we explored some of Zephaniah’s performance poetry together. Students completed some activities on the poem ‘Dis Poetry’ and they used evidence from the poem to answer the challenge question.

Lunchtime brought another round of our newly invented outdoor game, affectionately now called Quadball! We then headed back to the classroom with Mrs. Gray to discuss how certain computer games can actually help with Maths comprehension due to their use of a ranking system.

As we took a stroll the park again, students stayed enthusiastic about their afternoon walk, despite the rainy weather.

We finished the day working on our ‘hobbies work’, ready to present on Friday. All the students have worked very hard on them so I’m sure there will be some prizes to give out!

To help with any questions you have about learning from home or ‘Remote Learning’, our RSLs have put together a FAQ sheet.

Also, further to Boris Johnson’s announcement at the weekend, schools in Stockport are working together and have some further information and updates.

Wednesday 13th May 2020

Thank you to Miss Starr, Mr Williams and Mrs Hill for organising and supervising today’s activities.

The morning exercise consisted of the usual competitive games of basketball and badminton but also involved a relaxing pilates lesson supplied by Miss Starr. Aidan and Callum prevailed on the courts while Beth thoroughly enjoyed experiencing something new with pilates.

The students were very excited when we told them their first learning session of the day would be a takeaway! The mood shifted somewhat when it was revealed as an English Express Takeaway but everyone still took to the task enthusiastically. To start they could choose from activities such as Word Ton Soup, Tweet and Sour and Kung Poster Chicken. Moving on to the mains brought Cantonese- style Crosswords and a Poetry Platter!

After lunch Mr Williams led an R.E. session where students focussed on what Hindus believe about reincarnation, by using lists of good deeds and bad deeds. The group were fascinated to learn about the idea of Karma and the Hindu life cycle, ‘Samsara’. Student’s used this knowledge to create a Nirvana Snakes and Ladders, where snakes represented bad deeds and a backwards move, and ladders offered rewards for good deeds.

The sunshine was back out for our afternoon walk through the park so we extended it slightly to enjoy the fresh air, before ending the day with a final session on our public speaking presentations, ready to showcase either Friday or Monday. Dougie will be telling us all about fishing, Mason has chosen football and Aidan is a fan of Mixed Martial Arts to name a few!

Thursday 14th May 2020

Thank you to Mr. Singh, Mr. Hussain, Mrs. Archer and Mrs. Bradbury-Cheetham for today’s supervision of activities.

A different start to today in the shape of a cricket match in the sport’s hall! Mr. Singh led students in a friendly match, with some excellent fielding shown by all involved. As the sun was back out, we decided to move as many activities outdoors as possible. Mr. Singh continued his session on the number grid asking students to find prime numbers, multiples, square numbers and factors.

Mr. Hussain took the afternoon sessions and taught the students how to measure their own speed. They first did a walking lap of the tennis court to measure it’s distance, then timed each other sprinting around to work out their speed. All the student’s cheered each other on and enjoyed the time outdoors.

After lunch, the students were set the challenge of ‘Protect The Egg’! Given a drawer full of junk, the group had to create something which would stop an egg from cracking when dropped from a 1 metre height. Imaginative doesn’t even begin to describe the contraptions which were produced, but every egg survived!

After our walk we decided to take in more sunshine by having a relaxing read in the quad. Some students wanted to read alone, some with a member of staff and some students just enjoyed being read to. Perhaps some were relaxing more than others!

Before home we finished the week long ‘Badminton Battle’ in the sports hall. To save Mr. Carr’s blushes, I won’t mention the score but let’s say well done to Dougie who left very happy!

Friday 15th May 2020

Re-opening of schools

The Government released further guidance at the start of the week concerning re-opening of schools:

This guidance appears to be focussed more on the details for the Primary sector and which years are expected in school and when, with a wider aspiration for Primary children to have a month in school before the summer holidays.

The guidance is more vague in terms of Secondary schools. They have asked schools to create some “face to face” contact with Year 10 students, but the manner in which this is to be achieved and the timeframe is not specified. As a result, all schools are currently uncertain about the ways in which the guidance should be implemented.

There is an expectation that further guidance will be issued, which will provide more detail regarding the type of provision for Year 10 students. As parents and carers, you will be concerned to know when your children will be able to return to school and what this experience will be like. We are currently planning for different types of scenarios and you can be assured that when we have definite information about plans to re-open school, we will share them with you.

In the meantime, the school is only providing provision for students of key workers and vulnerable students. If you need to access our key worker provision please complete the booking form on the school website. We are aware that some employers are seeking employees to return to work, but at this stage we are not able to extend this provision to our other students.

Have a nice weekend!

Headteacher’s Blog – Week 30

4th May 20208th May 2020

Monday 4th May 2020

I hope this week’s blog finds you safe and well after a restful weekend.

Thanks to Ms Linnecor, Mrs Eames, Mrs Bentham, Mr McCulloch and Mr Carr for supporting the 7 students we had in school today.

This morning’s exercise was a combination of table tennis, badminton and basketball in the sports hall and much like last week, Aidan continues his reign as champion!

In the first learning session, Miss Eames hosted a maths quiz with links to film, music and history: quite a mixed bag! Despite valiant efforts from everyone, Dougie took the top prize.

The students followed this by exploring volume by making some 3D cubes and decorating them however they saw fit. Many students opted for a rainbow design, a symbol that has taken on importance for them all in recent times.

The afternoon brought some history to our students as they identified key figures from the 20th century and researched them to create booklets to share with the rest of the group. This session finished with some work on the Ancient Egyptians, creating their own scroll depicting scenes from their lives.

After the regular mile walk, the day ended with some interactive geography work, with students taking it in turns trying to identify countries from their outline with varying degrees of success! Once the class had some clues then there was no stopping them.

We also had fabulous news that former Kingsway student, Emon Choudhury won the BBC2 show “Race Across The World”. Emon has kindly posted a personal message to all our students. Well done to him for literally proving how far Kingsway can help you go!

Tuesday 5th May 2020

Tuesday in school brought the same 7 smiling students, and thanks to Mr Hulme, Miss Kelman and Mr Mahmood for supervising today.

The day began on the field in the glorious sunshine with a fierce bean bag throwing competition! Tensions were high as the target moved further and further away but after some friendly rivalry, Aidan took the top spot. Some students however, preferred a quiet stroll around the running track to start their day.

The action then moved into the sports hall as the students launched their bean bags from the balcony, then enjoyed a few games of basketball and badminton.

Exhausted after their exertions, the students then moved on to the first learning session of the day with Mr. Mahmood and an introduction to stop motion animation. After a brief workshop, the group began designing their own animation on paper, developing characters and a storyline. After lunch they then started to transfer their ideas on to the screen. Ideas ranged from a spaceman to someone bouncing a ball and the 2 hours this took helped students realise how much work goes into some of their favourite films.

Instead of a walk today we let off some steam on the field with a run and some exercises in the sun. To end the day, as there had been a lot of ‘screen time’ this afternoon everyone picked up their reading book for some quiet reading, with the opportunity to ask questions about any vocabulary, grammar or punctuation.

And finally, application forms for our new Kingsway School Poet Laureate and Literacy Ambassadors are now available on the Kingsway Online Library portal on Google Classroom. Any student interested should get thinking as the deadline is Wednesday 3rd June for these exciting new opportunities!

Free school meals - National Voucher Scheme Update

We have now moved onto the Government's national voucher scheme to continue to support our families whose children are eligible for free school meals. If you provided us with a working email address, you should have received an email containing en e-Code directly from Edenred.

If your e-Code has not come through , firstly, check your spam and/or trash folder. If it still hasn’t arrived by Thursday 7th May 2020, please contact Miss Stansfield at l.stansfield@kingsway.stockport.sch.uk to ensure that we have your correct email address. If necessary, we can resend the e-Code.

If you did not provide us with a working email address by the 27th April, we have requested an e-Code on your behalf and will endeavour to get the e-Code or eGift card to you on or before 8th May 2020.

Wednesday 6th May 2020

As we reach the middle of the week, the program for those students in school continues. Thanks to Miss Tunnell and Mrs Guess for their support today.

The day began with a group reading session with Miss Tunnell. Students opted to read individually from the great selection of books we have available on our Broadway campus.

In order to avoid busier pavements, we also decided to have our mile walk early today. This helped with the essential social distancing from the public and meant we could extend our walk in the, once again, glorious sunshine.

Miss Tunnell then led the group in analysing an excerpt from Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton, looking for the most impactful adjectives, verbs and nouns.

The afternoon was led by Mrs Guess and the students were tasked with creating the perfect afternoon tea! Over 2 and a half hours, the students made savoury puff pastry tarts, ham and mustard mayonnaise sandwiches, houmous and natural yoghurt with chive dip (with crudites!) and flapjacks to finish. The smells coming from the kitchen were lovely, and I hope whoever at home got to enjoy their work appreciated it.

We ended the day checking e-mails and Google classroom for any work that had been set, something we encourage all students to do whenever they can.

Read the latest restorative Check In and Relational Round Up newsletters to gain a view of the restorative and relational work being developed in Stockport and to check out some new restorative ideas.

Thursday 7th May 2020

Thank you to Mrs. Beattie and Mr Woodiwiss for supervising today’s work.

Thursday brought a smaller group to school, but all as enthusiastic as ever to get stuck in to the activities. After a quiet reading session, we moved out to the tennis courts for some Maths related physical work!

The students chalked out good old fashioned hopscotch squares but could only advance when they had worked out the question set by Mrs. Beattie. We also then tried to estimate various distances (2 metres in particular!) and then measuring to see how close we were. We added a little more maths into the equation by converting metres into centimetres.

Before lunch there were some spirited badminton matches between the students, also involving Mr Woodiwiss and Mr Carr. The staff were, of course, the most competitive!

In the afternoon, students designed their own animal, researching online to draw inspiration. Some names were of a fantastical nature, Fingmartialist Fox. Some were more traditional, Gary. It would certainly make for an interesting zoo.

We ended the day, and in fact the week, by starting preparation for a project which will carry on into next week. Students were tasked with creating a presentation on their favourite hobby, ready to showcase soon. I look forward to seeing a very diverse selection from Tik Tok to fishing!

I hope you have a lovely weekend.

Headteacher’s Blog – Week 29

28th April 20201st May 2020

Monday 27th April 2020

I hope this blog finds you and your families well and in good spirits.

My thanks today to Mr Abbott, Miss Smith and Mr Oldham who supported the students in school today.

For sports we had a mishmash of basketball, table tennis and badminton. Beth and Pati had some impressive rallying skills and Aidan beat the rest of us at every sport.

In their learning session we played some literacy and numeracy games and then wrote a script.

Students had a choice of two practice D&T tasks. Firstly, a simple butt jointed pine box with an acrylic base and a lift off acrylic lid with a choice of design (time permitting) or secondly a rustic wall hanging/mobile using natural twine and a choice of pine or acrylic for their pieces. Students had free range on the design and number of pieces in their design.

Work was cut using coping saws and finished with files and glass paper/wet and dry paper. Those students doing the wall hanging also used the battery powered hand drill.

There was a lot of information circulating this weekend in response to the Oak Academy information that we shared with you last week. So we thought it would be useful to share our favourite top tips with you to help families negotiate home learning at this time.

The Kingsway School’s Top Ten Tips for Home Learning

Establish a clear routine - one that works for your family. Use the visual year timetables, available on the website and Frog pages, to help you. Don’t be too rigid but set goals so that you feel motivated.
Break the day into chunks so that you can see you have achieved things and build in rewards and activities away from school work.
Compromise and space is key. Reach a compromise with your household. If you need some space but can’t find it, put a peg on your jumper as a reminder to your household that you need some quiet time or you need to work so you are not disturbed.
Check Class Charts daily so you know what work has been set. All parents have their own log in so you can discuss activities with your child. Why not encourage your child to also have a go at their RSL’s daily challenge which is uploaded on to Frog?
If your digital devices are in high demand in your household, go to Class Charts and log on to your account; select the ‘list tab’ on the homework calendar and change to issue date (or today’s date). You can now see all the tasks for the day and if the work does not require access to digital devices, your child can print these off and work away from the screen
Don’t worry about the curriculum; it’s more important to keep your child engaged so learning habits don’t disappear.
If your child shows a passion for something, let them explore it to their heart’s content.
Make time to read together as a family. Model reading and your child will be more invested
Use the resources provided by the teachers but don’t forget there are an array of additional resources such as Collins, Oak Academy and online lessons by BBC Bitesize
Communicate with the school and staff. This includes checking the headteacher’s daily blog, social media and website, as well as emailing subject teachers. We’re all here and happy to help in any way we can.

Finally, some lovely news. Every year the same mother duck uses our Broadway quad to bring up her little ones. Unfortunately, we rarely see the ducklings grow up and leave their nest due to the busy nature of our school. However, this year, our proud mother duck has ten beautiful babies who are growing up nicely in the quiet of our quad. One, two three …. ahhhh!

Tuesday 28th April 2020

Many thanks to Mrs Evans, Miss Brideaux, Mrs Weall and Mrs Flood who all supported the learning in school today. Also thanks to Mr Maxwell, who has been working behind the scenes to ensure that resources are still available to those students who need them.

After continuing to read "Billionaire Boy" together, students headed off to the hall and did some cardio work; Pati worked super hard on the treadmill! This was followed with a badminton competition. It turns out the Becketts are badminton champions! They got a rally of over 30 over and over again. They are now known as "The Unbeatable Becketts".

After all that physical exertion, students had some discussion time around social media and how it can be a good and a bad thing during lock down. They explored fake news and how harmful that can be and the pressure to live a "perfect" life that social media can place upon us. Also, we can all slip into bad habits and spend too much time on our screens (One student’s average screen time was over 6 hours a day... and he admitted he spends a lot of the rest of it on his X Box!).

We further explored how positive social media can be at the moment, especially to keep in touch with friends and family. Students each made a communication circle and looked at how we are using social media and devices to communicate with those we don't live with and can't see during lockdown. We each thought of a way we could get in touch with grandparents who don't have social media (write a letter) or old primary school friends we have lost touch with (send an e mail) and how important acts of kindness are when we are in lockdown. Zhara is going to send her aunty a quick text tonight, just to say hi and let her know she is thinking of her.

Finally, each person created an "Acts Of Kindness Calendar" and planned an act of kindness for every day for the rest of the week. Zhara and Pati managed to do nearly the whole month of May. These acts included: say "thank you" to parent/teacher; post a friendly note through the door of an elderly person on your street who may be feeling isolated; do something at home which you normally have to be nagged to do such as tidying their room or making a cup of tea for parents. The calendar also included planning to do things to be kind to yourself, which is also important. Mrs Evans loved being back with the students and is looking forward to seeing if they did complete their acts of kindness when we catch up again.

Just before 11am, we all met at the front of the school to commemorate the passing of 100 NHS workers, ensuring social distancing measures. Students were incredibly respectful and completed the minutes’ silence deep in thought.

Following this, the students checked the welfare of our duckling family who are currently thriving with their own paddling pool - shame the weather has changed or we could have joined them! In the afternoon, students went out to the field to do some surveying on what different things lived there but unfortunately the weather forced us back inside so we adjusted the lesson and looked at designing cars with the aim that they were efficient and streamlined.

The day ended with some science kahoot quizzes - which Aiden seemed a pro at - and completing the online work provided by their teachers.

We hope you are all keeping yourself as busy and occupied at home. If your child is checking the Year Group Page on Frog daily, you will know today is Literacy Tuesday. Whilst your child will have been set a daily challenge by their RSL and we expect them to read daily, you may be thinking about ways you can support your child with their reading. The EEF have produced 7 Top Tips to Support Reading at Home. You can also support your child by encouraging them to visit our Kingsway Online Library or even encourage them to apply to be either our Poet Laureate or Literacy Ambassador roles for when we return.

Wednesday 29th April 2020

This morning our pupils took the opportunity to take part in our own 2.6 London marathon challenge. All 6 pupils managed to complete at least 2 of the challenges set which included running 2.6k, hitting a rally of 26 shots in Badminton and Table Tennis, shooting the ball in the basketball hoop 26 times and throwing and catching the ball one handed against the wall 26 times.

We then went back to B25 to do some research about the London Marathon. The pupils created some excellent fact files about the history of the event, the fastest and slowest recorded times , the amount of money raised for charity and also their favourite runners' fancy dress costume. Some excellent work was produced!

This afternoon the students played kahoot with a geography focus. The first round was Tropical rainforests and second on world knowledge continents and oceans. We then spent an hour planning their own race across the world. This activity is based on the BBC2 series where 5 teams of two race against each other to reach the finish line first. The students tasks were to choose a continent and plan the journey across it stopping at 6 checkpoints. Their journey detail included transport used, (no planes allowed) where to stay and what attractions to visit. We then finished the day watching the impossible (based on the Boxing day Tsunami 2004).

Thursday 30th April 2020

Many thanks to Mr Howarth, Ms Nay, Ms Clarke, Charlene Dolan and Mrs Bradbury-Cheetham who all supported the learning in school today. Also thanks to site staff for keeping our campus open and sparklingly clean.

There were 4 students in school today. They started the day with their reading then Mr Howarth taught them some golf skills in the sports hall. They learnt how grip the club properly. Here they are practicing their swings!

Later the students continued their fitness regime by practicing shots in basketball and working on their abdominals in the cardio area.

Later students returned to the computer room to research and develop ideas for one of 10 ideas for going green led by Mrs Clarke. There was lively discussion around the opposing views of Donald Trump and Greta Thunberg! Zahra’s idea was to plant trees instead of releasing balloons for celebrations, Pati’s was to become meat free once per week and Brandon’s was to walk more than use the car.

We then completed our daily constitutional ‘walk a mile’ and were blown away by the beautiful flowers and fragrant lilac.

Finally we continued to brighten up the quad by using stencils and spray paint - it was quite tricky with the wind blowing the stencils about but we managed. This was Reagon’s favourite activity and Brandon was pleased because it was a new skill to learn.

Our Year 6 students, who are starting in September, also have received a surprise package this week: a welcome postcard from the transition team; a transition booklet with many activities to get them to know about the school, routines and expectations, as well as goal setting for their future; and a school map to get to know their way around. These tools will also be used to complete a number of challenges that will be set over the next few weeks.

Friday 1st May 2020

This morning, the students had their 30 minute read in B25. Following this we played table tennis, badminton and basketball during the 30 minute activity time. During session 1, despite some technical hitches, Mr Soles taught a lesson about sedimentary rock. The students seemed to engage well in this and we had quite a wide-ranging discussion about this topic. The session concluded with a storyboard task about the formation of sedimentary rocks.

Meanwhile our facilities team have been busy updating the school site, now that paint supplies are starting to become available.

During these challenging times, many families have had changes in their financial situation due to Coronavirus. If you have been affected by the economic impacts of the Coronavirus then it might be worth exploring whether your child/ren would be eligible for free school meals. To see if you are eligible you can access eligibility information on the school website or check by clicking on the following link and completing the Online FSM Application. Once you receive confirmation of eligibility please let us know by emailing l.stansfield@kingsway.stockort.sch.uk. You will then receive support from us in the form of an e-code that you can redeem online from a selection of supermarkets Gift cards to the value of £15 per week, per child. Should you need any further help please feel free to contact the School on Mondays or Thursdays between the hours of 9am and 2pm for support from Miss Woodyer or Miss Stansfield.

We are aware of the government announcement regarding digital devices for disadvantaged students. As yet we have received no further information from the Department for Education. As soon as we have more details, we will contact the families of those children who might be eligible.

Our Local Authority have issued some helpful advice and guidance to support students’ well-being and families during the lockdown. See the below links.

Stockport Council Information to Support Well-being

Headteacher’s Blog – Week 28

20th April 202024th April 2020

Monday 20th April 2020

Good Morning and welcome back after the Easter break.

Thank you to Miss Littler, Miss Horsey, Mrs Rouse and Ms Linnecor who came into school to support our students today.

This morning both students and staff were raring to go with Joe Wicks to help burn off the chocolate they had consumed over the holidays.

That was hard work!

After everyone had caught their breath, we completed some English work with Miss Littler. Students continued reading Billionaire Boy, followed by exploring rhyme and rhythm with the aim of creating their own limericks.

After break, we became bakers and made our own chocolate chip shortbread with Miss Horsey. Despite some interesting 'crumbling' skills, all students said their end product tasted nice. Well done!

After a brisk walk around Cheadle Village with Miss Horsey and Mrs Rouse, we logged into BBC iPlayer to watch the lesson for today on CBBC. Today’s lessons covered negative numbers and gave some background information on the lead up to the Battle of Hastings. Our final task was to explore the Cultural Experience Challenge map that Mrs Bradley posted. We listened to Beethoven’s Symphony number 5 and tried to name as many instruments as possible in the orchestra. Well done Aiden for correctly identifying a bassoon.

We have received some information from the Local Authority regarding the Seashell Trust. Please click on the image below to view details about the 2.6 Challenge taking place on Sunday 26 April to help save the UKs charities.

Tuesday 21st April 2020

Thanks to Miss Pike, Mrs Glover, Mrs Siddall and Mr Sadler who all came in today as we embarked on another day of lockdown fun!

Miss Pike took our four usual suspects for their morning session and things followed the same routine with some reading and some exercise:

“This morning, I read Billionaire Boy for 30 minutes, then we followed the Joe Wicks live youtube workout for 30 minutes. After this, we did rallies on table tennis alternating partners to see who they could get the best rally with. We then finished off the table tennis session with a match against our first partner. Badminton was our next activity and we repeated the rally competition; Aiden and Beth got the highest by a long way this time.

We then played a match against a different person. All of us then moved to the cardio suite where they tried to see how many calories they could burn on each machine available. Beth achieved the most calories on the rowing machine. Aiden also went on the weights machines as year 9 upwards are allowed on.”

Mrs Glover then took the students into her computer room, where they were hoping to log on and take a look at the online work their teachers had set for them today… from the looks of it, Kingsway staff are really getting into the swing of remote learning as there was lots to choose from. Things didn’t quite go to plan though, as Mrs Glover explains:

“Those pesky internet gremlins were enjoying turning the interweb on and off and on again all afternoon! After much frustration, Aiden and Beth decided on a game of Connect 4 instead to keep them entertained. Lunch was next and after that, the group headed back to the computer room for more hijinks from those pesky gremlins. This was not a problem as Mr Sadler suggested we moved our afternoon walk forward, so myself and Mrs Siddall headed out into the gorgeous sunshine. Alas... on our return, those pesky gremlins decided to hit the off button for a final time so Mr Sadler took the group to choose a reading book instead.”

To finish the day, Mr Sadler was more than happy to abandon the dreaded digital delays and do two of his favorite things: reading and writing. He took the students down to our Broadway reading room, where some of Kingsway’s brand new library books (funded by The Kingsway Association) were hiding.

Reagan opted for a non-fiction book on space so he could begin to consider if aliens really did exist - he concluded that we are definitely not alone! The girls both went with Anthony Horrowitz as they fancied reading a nail biting story instead and Aiden decided he wanted to stick with Billionaire Boy as it has been the group reader since before Easter. Who needs the internet anyway when you have such fabulous books?

The day ended with a little bit of creative writing, where everyone had a go at writing vivid descriptions of settings using the five senses and ISPACE to help vary their sentence starters... they then home for the day!

Wednesday 22nd April 2020

Thank you to Mr Duffy, Miss Willett, Miss Hughes and Mr Frazer who supported our little gang today.

Here’s what they’ve been up to:

This morning our students got active again with Mr Duffy: “After Joe Wicks, the group played a few games of Naughts and Crosses relays in the sports hall before practicing some shooting in Basketball. The Beckett team were undefeated in naughts and crosses, with Aiden winning the Basketball challenge.”

In Miss Willet’s session, the students got a chance to keep things practical by designing and making their own clocks (no excuse for being late to school now)!

My thanks daily go out to the small number of staff in school each day, looking after a similarly small number of students. However, my thanks also go out to the huge number of parents who are doing a terrific job home-schooling a huge number of our students. Well done to you all!

We are grateful for all you are doing to help support your child during this difficult time, which will in turn support the school when the lockdown is eventually lifted.

Before Easter, we sent out a parent survey to gather your thoughts on how remote learning was going so far. We appreciated all the positive comments you fed back and have taken account of your comments regarding more structure and direction on what the children should be doing each day. You will therefore have received a revised remote learning timetable via your child’s Raising Standards Leader this week. We hope you find this helpful.

For students in Year 11, Mr Williams has sent a newsletter with some helpful tips on bridging the gap between lockdown and their post school pathway.

Furthermore, parents can signpost students to two new websites; Oak National Academy and BBC Bitesize.

The Oak National Academy has launched an online classroom and resource hub. The Academy offers 180 video lessons each week for schools to use, across a broad range of subjects. The lessons cover children in Reception through to Year 10 and are all free to use.

The BBC has launched an education package across TV and online which features celebrities and teachers, who will help to keep children learning at home and will support parents.

Stockport Youth Council have also sent information to support our home-schooling students. You can find more information via this newsletter:

Stockport Youth Council - Newsletter

Finally, I would like to share with you a lovely thank you letter we received from The Christie NHS Hospital today, thanking us for our donation of much needed PPE.

Thursday 23rd April 2020

Thanks to Mrs Wild, Mr Dubale, Mrs Jones , Mrs Wheeler and Miss Woodyer, who all came in to support our two students today.

Miss Wild took both of the students to choose some books from the mini library and they both read calmly for 20 minutes.

This was followed by a trip to the cardio suite to do a bit of wake up walking, running and cycling, and then the boys played badminton . To finish this morning's exercise, Mrs Wild joined them for a basketball game (keeping 2 metres apart) which Mrs Wild lost - not surprisingly.

It was then back to the computer room for a 'Let's think' session based around a short film called 'Alma', focusing on clues that foreshadow a surprising ending, and how foreshadowing is a common tool used to create tension in texts.

After a short break, Mr Dubale then took the students outside to do problem solving work and playing of chess in the sunshine. Later on, they moved back to the computer room when it became a little chilly.

After lunch, Brandon and Regan headed back to the computer room with Mr Dubale and did some more problem solving, this time completing a few mathematics puzzles. For this afternoon’s exercise the boys and Mr Dubale wanted to “shoot more baskets” and took a trip back to the sports hall.

Following their exercise, they returned to work in the computer room with Miss Woodyer where they were hoping to use Google classroom to do some online learning and send a few emails to their teachers. However once again, those pesky gremlins had other ideas so Miss Woodyer taught them a little bit of coding in python. To finish the day, Miss Woodyer granted the boys some gaming time, playing the classic game of “Guess Who”.

Following on from yesterday, we have been looking for resources to share with families on how best to cope with learning from home, at this time. The Education Endowment Foundation has produced an informative video to help establish routines to help with learning and building in day to day activities:

https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/public/files/videos/EEF_Supporting_daily_routines_during_school_closures.mp4

Additionally there is a checklist to help your child see their progress throughout the day:

https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/public/files/Publications/Covid-19_Resources/Resources_for_parents/Supporting_home_learning_routines_-_Planning_the_day.pdf

These would be really useful, especially when used alongside the visual year group timetables that were shared by Raising Standards Leaders, earlier this week. These can also be found here:

Friday 24th April 2020

At The Kingsway School we are always seeking to provide a quality education for all children. The sudden speed at which we had to apply extensive remote learning took not only us, but the nation by surprise. Since then we have had some time to reflect and improve upon this to ensure that all our students could still access quality education, even if not physically in school - this was always going to be challenging but our staff rose to the occasion as usual.

However, we are not complacent and also acknowledge that the initial response and provision may not have been as polished and smooth as we would have liked. So, a couple of week’s ago we circulated a parent voice questionnaire in response to the remote learning that was being set.

The below link is in response to that feedback. Overall there was much positivity and gratefulness to the staff, and acknowledgement of the reliance of our wonderful students. However there were a key number of points that we have addressed and in the interests of transparency and clarity (especially at this very confusing time) we have summarised our response. We hope you find this useful.

Parent voice and response to remote learning provision (April 2020)

1 2 3 4 5

0161 428 7706 | office@kingsway.stockport.sch.uk

0161 428 7706
office@kingsway.stockport.sch.uk