There are also opportunities for our families to get active in the community. I received a lovely email last week from The Gatley Village Partnership: “On behalf of GVP, thank you so much for allowing us to run our Sports Day at the school and to your staff for helping us on the day and beforehand. I have had many people tell me how much they and their children enjoyed the afternoon, which is lovely and would not otherwise have been possible this year without you kindly opening up the school for us."

Staff and students certainly experienced the elements on our practice expedition last week, starting in rain on the first expedition and ending in hail on the second expedition. Miss Horsey said: “The students were incredible - from cooking eggs for breakfast (having never cracked an egg on the side of a pan before) to excellent navigation in a field full of cows. In a rare stroke of luck, students were all able to pitch their tents in relatively dry conditions, however we all braved the rain during our walk across the Peak District.”

78 students completed their practice expedition successfully and now have the job of drying out their tents before starting to prepare for the assessed expedition in June.

On Friday morning, Mrs Heard (School Business Manager) and myself met with a group of Year 9 resourced students who wanted to share with us their plans to improve recycling around the school.

Bethany acted as spokesperson for the group and asked that we invested in some recycling bins for plastic bottles. The students had given much thought to which bins they would like, how they will market their plan and also how they will ensure the plastic reaches the recycling unit. All the children were passionate about the damage that plastic was having on our environment and wanted to make a difference. It was very easy for Mrs Heard to agree to help the students source the bins.

Mrs Lucas organised a Year 5 Mad Science Show after a successful 2018 show. This year, our Mad Scientist ‘Inquisitive Indie’ showed Year 5 pupils from Prospect Vale, Gatley, Outwood, Lum Head and Meadowbank a collection of cool science experiments - even their teachers got up on stage and risked getting wet!

Finally, last week was our inaugural Year 7 Venture Award trip. Led by Mr Wood, over 120 Year 7 students and staff went to Linnet Clough Scout Camp in Mellor, over the course of 3 days. Students took part in a 24 hour expedition as part of the brand new Venture Award. The award is run by BXM expeditions, a team of highly qualified instructors. As soon as the coach dropped students off, they walked into camp with all their equipment on their backs. On arrival in camp, they were welcomed and given their first task: pitching tents. With a little instruction and looming clouds, the students set to work on twenty three-person tents. Once complete, the students split into teams and with their instructors enjoyed a series of activities, first aid, slack lining, creating a fire, making a shelter, map reading and looking for food. After the evening meal, students were allowed time to sort their tents and then walked to the camp fire to roast marshmallows and wild food. Once dusk descended, students spent a night under canvas.

The following morning, teams completed more fun activities. After the hike out of camp and a coach ride back to Kingsway, the students completed their Venture booklet reflections. There were two groups over the 3 days. The weather for group 1 was quite good, just a little rain during the Thursday morning. However this wasn't the same for Group 2 (students from 7E, 7K, 7N, 7S & 7Y) who experienced torrential rain and hail at times! However, this did not stop the instructors or students running the same activities, although it did make creating a fire more of a challenge! The weather broke in the afternoon but returned overnight and throughout the following morning. The students handled it brilliantly. The instructors and Kingsway staff kept a constant watch over the students, putting interventions in place where students were cold, wet or hungry.

The response from students was overwhelmingly positive, despite the rain. All students learned invaluable skills and explored new and exciting experiences. As always, our students were fantastic. Here’s some photos from the week:

On Wednesday, sixty Year 7 and 8 students took part in Level 1 Makaton Training as part of their Scholars Program. We were very lucky to have the NHS speech and Language team offer their services to the school for the day and we are keen to partner with them in the future to enable staff to welcome all learners into their classrooms with the use of sign language. Students involved in the training will be encouraged to teach their skills to their form groups and we aim to establish primary links, which will ensure continuity of skill as students move through education.

After all, our aim at the Kingsway school is to strive to be truly inclusive of all learners!

Also on Wednesday, 14 Year 10 students attended a Masterclass at Loreto Sixth Form College. We received some fantastic feedback about our students from Loreto staff who commented on their enthusiasm, maturity and engagement. Some of the new things they learnt included:

• The sign for providing b if A is B/A
• Spearman’s rank
• New concepts eg new info on spring constant
• Yes, k over 2 = springs connected, 2k= springs in parallel
• Links between contexts and texts
• The different rotations for venn diagrams
• Plants grow best in blue light

Earlier in the week, Year 7 students were highly creative during the History department’s unit of study on Castles. They created Motte and Bailey and Stone Keep castles out of a variety of materials. Their attention to detail was phenomenal- with some students even installing a working drawbridge in their castle. Stunning work Year 7 - Well done!

Over the last 2 weeks, Year 7 and Year 10 parents have been to school to attend their child’s annual parents evening. This is an opportunity for parents and carers to hear from individual class teachers about the progress that their child is making in each subject. I appreciate for our new Year 7 parents, that the evening is somewhat different to primary parents evenings. Unfortunately, the reality of a secondary parents evening is that appointments don’t always run to time and there’s a lot of walking from one place to another. However, the feedback from parents at both evenings was overwhelmingly positive with parents and carers feeding back that they are happy with the school, particularly how well we support their pastoral care and the academic support they are receiving from their teachers to ensure their reach their potential.

Some other great parent news came from the parents of Poppy Buckley in Year 8, who recently had her lovely long, blonde hair cut short and decided to donate her hair so that young people who have lost their hair through illness can be given real hair wigs, which are so expensive to buy. Well done Poppy on such a wonderful act of kindness. Please share with the school any acts of kindness by your children that deserve recognition.

Little Princess Trust website

This week we will be welcoming a film crew, who are making a suite of nine films for BBC Teach about transition from primary to secondary school. The short films are intended to reassure and inspire children about the opportunities in secondary school and the network of staff in place to help children flourish. This could be the start of my career as an actress!

Also last week, Mrs Heil arranged for some students to spend the morning in an International Women's Day workshop, examining gender expectations and media messages, before exploring the profiles of inspiring women around the world and creating their own 'inspirational woman' profile. They used resources from The Female Lead to question and challenge ideas of gender discrimination in the workplace and scrutinised recent advertising campaigns to pick apart the gendered messages that they present and what impact these messages have on self-esteem and aspirations. They then worked together to re-write those messages into ones of positivity and empowerment, through discussion and drama, before writing a personal profile in which they acknowledged themselves to be inspirational young women. They finished the workshop by writing positive messages on flashcards that they could take away. The workshop was a huge success with all students participating enthusiastically. One student commented after the workshop: "It opened me a bit more."

Other wonderful women include our Safeguarding Team of Mrs Maxey and Miss Cropper, who make sure our students feel safe and always feel they have someone to talk to. Last week, with the help of Miss Carrigan, our safeguarding team delivered an incredible Risky Business week aimed to inform students how to protect themselves from all things ‘RISKY’.

A wide range of agencies were invited in to school throughout the week including: the Fire Service, Community Nurses, Anti Bullying Campaigners, Mental Health Teams, Cheadle Mosque, Mosaic and many more. There were some great presentations and rich discussions about a range of issues, including: Anti Social Behaviour, Stress Management, Bullying, Sexuality, Mental Health, Radicalisation, Racism, Drugs, Alcohol and other 'risky' behaviours through the use of fun workshops and assemblies.

One of the areas of focus was knife crime, which was delivered by the Youth Offending Service. Listening to the radio this Sunday morning, hearing that there has been 26 fatal knife crimes this year alone, it is a very scary reality in some areas of the country.  The increasing number of incidents where people of all ages, including young people, are carrying and using knives frightens me as I am sure it frightens all families. Whilst we cannot control the decisions that our young people make when they are out of school, we can certainly influence them to make safe decisions. We repeatedly highlight the need for them to be vigilant and informed about their own and others safety. We also share practical advice from the local authority and police:

• Try not to walk the streets alone, particularly after dark.
• Always stick with friends whenever possible.
• Ensure your parents or guardians know where you are, who you are with and when you are likely to be home.
• If you have a mobile phone, keep the battery charged and phone switched on at all times. You can also download and install an app (such as ‘Find My Friends’) to your smartphone to allow your location to be shared with family or friends.
• Wherever possible, avoid poorly lit streets and parks.
• Keep a phone number for a local, reputable taxi company saved in your phone.
• If you feel unsafe for any reason, get to a safe location quickly and inform somebody you can trust.
• If you feel in danger, dial 999 immediately and ask for “Police”

The Kingsway School has a culture of support and is committed to ensuring all our students feel safe and are informed about keeping themselves and others safe.

If at any time you are concerned about your child please contact their Pastoral Head of Year or Miss Cropper and Mrs Maxey for support and guidance.

More girls doing great things last month, were our February merit total winners:

• Pankhurst: Ella-Grace Smith
• Whitworth: Ailyn Fuguett-Gutierrez
• Rylands: Amy Berry
• Lowry: Imogen West
• Gaskell: Charlie Lund
• Turing: Emma Boaler

Come on boys… you can do it too!

One boy who has really impressed his English teacher, Miss Cuttress, is Ben Habershon in 8Y who produced an excellent piece of homework this week. The task was to explore why jealousy is the most intolerable sin in 'Othello' by William Shakespeare. Students were asked to present their ideas in any way they wished; Ben - along with his dad - recorded an excellent interview with William Shakespeare himself! He discussed how Iago's character is used as a tool to teach the audience about the destructive effects of jealousy. A brilliant effort - just listen. Well done Ben.

Finally, our Music men Mr Lawton and Mr Wood did their bit last week, by giving all of Year 7 the opportunity to visit the Bridgewater Hall and listen to the Hallé Orchestra perform as part of their annual Hallé for Youth concerts. Students were treated to a rich and varied programme of music based on 'Conflict and Resolution' including:  'Ride of The Valkyries' by Wagner; '1812 Overture' by Tchaikovsky; Holst's 'Mars' from his Planet Suite and 'The Imperial March' from Star Wars, written by John Williams. This fantastic opportunity was once again embraced by all students, and the school can now say that almost every student has seen a live orchestra perform (and not just any orchestra - a world renowned one), since we first started running the trips 5 years ago.