Welcome to the start of the summer term 2021.

Rather than looking back on what the last year has been like, I thought we should start the summer term looking forward, with enthusiasm and anticipating what is to come!

The Class of 2021: For our Year 11 students, we now have more detail about how the teacher assessed grades will be used to replace their GCSE exams. Teachers are currently working on this process, ready for the submission of grades by the 18th June 2021.

Year 11 students need to continue to work hard and try their best as is our vision ‘to be the best versions of themselves’. Whilst the evidence for their grades will take account of what they have achieved thus far, it will also take account of their future academic performance. This includes the mini-exams which will be taking place between 4th May 2021 and 14th May 2021.

I am sure that Year 11 students and parents will have questions, for example about leaving school, prom and results day. We will continue to communicate with our students and their families as soon as decisions have been made. 

The current expectation is that, for the vast majority of Year 11 students, their last day in school will be Friday 28th May 2021. However, some students may be required to return to school to provide supporting evidence for their GCSE assessments. We will also continue to support students after 28th May 2021, with advice and information on their post-16 pathways.

Students will receive their GCSE results on Thursday 12th August 2021 - more information to follow.

Aside from Year 11, other students can also look forward this term to fifteen weeks of hopefully uninterrupted learning! I am pinning all my hopes on a Covid free term for our staff and students and their families. We will continue to take the necessary precautions including:

• the wearing of face coverings in school (as per the updated government guidance on 6th April 2021). The Prime Minister’s roadmap suggests that this rule will be relaxed on Monday 17th May 2021. We will share updated information with our families nearer the time.
• twice weekly rapid testing at home for all staff and students to help identify anyone who has the virus, but is not displaying symptoms so that they can isolate and keep their family and school community safe.
• separation of year groups at social times and one way systems in both campuses to avoid the spread of the virus across student groups. 

The Class of 2026: 2026 seems a long way in the future, but these ten and eleven year olds are already gearing up for joining Kingsway in September. We are really looking forward to meeting them and their families in the coming weeks. Mrs Wardle (Deputy Headteacher) and Mrs Jones (Transition Mentor) have a rich array of events taking place to help aid students transition to high school, despite the barriers presented to us by the pandemic.

This week, we will be holding our Welcome Evening for the class of 2026 parents and carers. Usually this would have been a face to face event but, due to current restrictions, we will be posting a welcome presentation on the Class of 2026 Parents’ Facebook page and on our website at the same time. Should you have any comments or questions, please post them below the video on our Facebook page, where Mrs Wardle and Mrs Jones will be available from 5:45pm to respond to you. We hope that this will allow for greater engagement and enable you as parents/carers to ask us questions directly.

Finally, I would like to add my tributes to the Duke of Edinburgh who passed away last week. I too hope to live to 99 and look back on a life well lived. One of my first actions as Headteacher at The Kingsway School in 2013 was to introduce the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme to provide opportunities for Kingsway students to have fun, make new friends, improve their self-esteem and build confidence. Since then we have had many hundreds of students successfully complete the award, pushing their own boundaries and creating the ‘best version of themselves’ in the process. I could not be prouder of any young person who works hard and always tries their best - there is no greater attribute in my eye!

Tribute from Miss Horsey (DofE Coordinator)

The Duke of Edinburgh Award has been a huge part of my time at The Kingsway School and is a great celebration of a range of achievements our students have completed - from volunteering in the local community, to walking 10km in the pouring down rain! 

It was an honour to represent the school at Westminster Abbey in November 2016, in attendance with HRH Prince Phillip, celebrating 60 years of the award. 

Our students have really showed what the Duke of Edinburgh is about - creating memories which allows students to build the skills, confidence, and resilience they need to make the most out of life. 

Whilst the COVID pandemic has had a huge impact on our lives, The Kingsway School DofE students have shown great determination to complete the award and I’m proud to continue working with the students as they complete their award. 

Dates for your diary

This week we welcome back Mrs Dunn (Teacher of Art) from her maternity leave and say goodbye to Mr Fraser (Resource Centre Teaching Assistant). We wish Mr Fraser well for the future and thank him for his work with our resource students.

Our Resource Centre celebrated Friday's Red Nose Day with great success: “The students all wore something red and took part in a Red Nose quiz and a cake sale - staffed by Milly F and John D and a wonderful 'open mic' session compered by Mr Sarkissian. The afternoon started with a PowerPoint by Austin O to explain why we were raising money. The students performed a variety of acts, including a solo singing performance (Bethany W), a comedy session (Zidaan M), storytelling and dancing (Ibrahim K) drama performances (Gabriella T, Tiana C, Asad H, Jake I. Danny I, Bethany W, Ahnaf K, Jack B, Jake D and Milly F) a fabulous 'masked singer' performance and Salsa by Jake I. Austin pledged £10 for Mr Sarkissian to do the robot dance which he did - helped by Ahnaf - will Mr Sarkissian ever forgive Austin? We are not sure but it was worth it! Mrs Archer finished the day with a fabulous poem all about the resource students. At first count, we have raised over £80! A big thank you to all the Resource School students, who were all AMAZING and to the generosity of their parents. An extra big thank you to Mr Sarkissian and Mrs Archer for making the day such a success”. Mrs Burgess

One of our resource students is shielding at home due to having cystic fibrosis. He still took part - this is from his mum:

“I don't like to hang around when he is having his online lessons... I have to remind him of the time and sometimes have to help him log on but then I tend to leave him to get on with it. But... on Friday I couldn't help but listen in... and I kind of feel privileged that I was able to! Mr Sarkissian, you had us in stitches and you Mrs Archer had me in floods of tears! I was an emotional wreck by the end of the day! Thank you to you all.”

Last week saw our testing team complete their last COVID test in our mass testing centre. Since lockdown, we have carried out 4500 tests! Thanks to the support of staff, governor and parent volunteers who worked every day to get through the government’s requirement to test all staff and students.

Schools have now moved to self-testing and we handed out approximately 2500 home tests to consenting students last week. Please see the Privacy notice for COVID home testing. Along with the tests is a separate booklet explaining how to test and the way in which results must be reported. ALL positive results must be reported to school, and a confirmatory PCR test booked. With regular testing and increasing vaccinations, it certainly feels like there is light at the end of the dark COVID tunnel and it won’t be long before we can enjoy hugging our friends and family again.

Thank you to all parents for their overwhelming support over the last year.

Staff and students are required to continue to self-test over the Easter holidays. Instructions have been given to students, recommending testing on Monday and Thursdays.

Last week saw our Year 7 Virtual Parents’ Evening. For many families this was the first opportunity to meet the subject teachers and understand the progress their child has been making. We were overwhelmed with the lovely messages of support:

“Thank you to all the staff who gave their time and support during the Year 7 parents’ evening. Great feedback and positive thinking to lead our children forward from what has been a difficult year for everyone. WELL DONE”

“Really impressed with how the parents' evening was organised and run. So efficient and much easier for parents, not having to finish work early, sort out childcare, spend time travelling to and from school, etc. Teachers all did great and ran exactly to time on every meeting. Could not have been better. I hope this can be considered as an option for future parents evening. Thank you”

After school is very busy and we would ask that if you do collect your child by car, please be considerate of others and park away from Broadway and Foxland roads because these become easily congested, and we do not want any accidents.

In the coming days PC 17950 Maule will patrol, identifying drivers who park dangerously or cause an obstruction.

Battle of the books

Congratulations to Jess F and Elise M (10S) who were the winners of this year's Battle of the Books competition. They acted out a scene from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet to convince the judges that their chosen book was the best. Well done girls!

What a busy time it was in school last week. Staff returned and were able to base themselves in their own classrooms for the first time since September. Students were also back in school and hit the ground running in lessons. 

Our amazing testing team carried out around 1500 LFD (Lateral Flow Device) tests  - the team are staff and community volunteers who have undertaken government training in order to deliver the tests to our staff and students.

We have one more week of testing in-school, after which, consenting students will be given home testing kits. This is something staff have been doing for two weeks now, and is very straight forward.

Hooray! The day has finally arrived when we can begin to welcome our students back into school.

There has been a lot of preparation for this moment including creating a one way system around each of our campuses, getting classrooms clean and tidy and training our team of testing volunteers. 

You will have seen a recent communication advising that, with the exception of Year 11, all other year groups will be invited into school to have their test the day before the return to school. This is so we can ensure there are no asymptomatic cases in school. For Year 11, they will now start after the first break, with testing taking place before then. Students and families will be informed promptly of a positive result by the school. We are doing everything we can to keep our school community safe.

Testing is a new feature of the organisation of our school, and we are pleased that we are able to offer it to all our students. However, a negative COVID LFD test is not a licence for students to disregard the guidance. As well, the government has suspended the option of having continuous 7 day LFD testing for any person who is identified as a close contact of somebody with COVID-19. Instead, the previous system of identifying close contacts and then self-isolating for 10 days will apply until further guidance is provided. The country remains under lockdown and restrictions must be adhered to at all times. 

A key component of school safety is the wearing of masks in school. I know that they are not the most comfortable of accessories and that they can make communication that little bit harder. But for now, I believe the benefits outweigh the inconvenience and hopefully by Easter, because we were all compliant with the measures expected of us, we will see school operating as normal. 

It is likely that there will be those families who do not wish to engage with the testing programme, which means we can never be certain that there are no asymptomatic students in school. However, I hope that with the vast majority engaging in the programme we will be more sure than not. 

Likewise, we cannot force students to wear a face mask in school, nor can we exclude them from their education. However, we are hoping that all our students and their parents play their part in keeping our school community safe and follow the expectations we have.

As students return to school please could we make a plea to parents and carers who drop off and collect their children not to park outside of the school, or stand by the gate. In addition to restricting the safety of students who are regularly forced into the road because of parked cars, we need to maintain social distancing as students depart. Please arrange a suitable meeting point, such as the area we negotiated with John Lewis in September, or in a street away from the school. Please also ensure that you are considerate to our neighbours. 

Students are expected to wear their full school uniform on return to school. For students in Key Stage 3, they can continue to wear their school PE kit on days they have PE lessons, to avoid crowding in the changing rooms. I must stress this is school PE kit only and not hoodies for example. Our school behaviour policy will be followed for any students violating our uniform policy.

Most students have not been in school since Christmas, and they may well have received electric or e-scooters as presents. These are not allowed on school grounds, and therefore it is pointless students using them to come to school. The police have informed us that they need to be insured in the same way as a motorbike or car, and some youngsters have had them confiscated as a result.

When they return to school, students will notice that our premises team have been working hard. Work has nearly been completed on replacing all our doors with new doors that meet fire regulations and we have refurbished our Foxland library into a new Learning Resource Centre to cater for up to 100 students. This space will build upon the skills that students and staff have developed in learning online.

Someone who has been making the most of remote working is Art teacher, Miss Stendall who has created this fabulous virtual art exhibition. 

Congratulations to Bastian B in Year 9 who achieved a SILVER award in the school’s Maths challenge. As the youngest entrant he did really well, scoring second highest for the school.

Keeping students safe in all aspects of their life is something that The Kingsway School is deeply committed to. Whilst we were unable to run our usual workshops, last week we did complete an online Risky Business Week. During the week students were given access to assemblies surrounding topics that are covered in the PSHE curriculum. These include prejudice, harmful language, identity, drugs and alcohol, healthy relationships, managing money, loans, housing and antisocial behaviour. Our PSHE curriculum will continue to support students’ understanding in these matters. Many thanks to everyone who contributed and participated in these sessions.

We also celebrated World Book Day on Thursday 4th March with a number of competitions to enter. 'The Masked Reader' was a popular form time competition, where English teachers read the blurb to their favourite novel, whilst in disguise, and students had to guess each teacher. Whilst nobody was able to get 'full marks', a number of forms and students came close and will receive extra merits and a prize upon our return to school.

7 days and counting… until we start welcoming our students back!

We have been planning all week, readying for their return along with the return of their teachers, the vast majority of whom have been delivering lessons from home.

Here’s the plan for our students’ return to school and engagement with the LFD (Lateral Flow Device) testing programme:

• Monday 8th March: Year 11 return at 8:30am and receive test 1
• Tuesday 9th March: Year 10 return at 8:30am and receive test 1
• Wednesday 10th March: Year 7 return at 8:30am and receive test 1
• Thursday 11th March: Year 8 return at 8:30am and receive test 1, Year 11 will receive test 2
• Friday 12th March: Year 9 return at 8:30am and receive test 1, Year 10 will receive test 2

Testing will continue w/c 15th March until all year groups have received three LFD tests in school. Henceforth, students will be issued with tests to complete at home. More information about home testing to follow.

Testing is voluntary. However, we are aiming for as near to 100% of our staff and student population as possible to engage in the testing programme so we can play our part in keeping ourselves and our families safe. If you have not done so already, please give your consent before Wednesday 3rd March 2021 to allow staff in school to plan the administration of the testing schedule.

On their return to school, students will be following the same timetable, but in new classrooms where year groups will be split across campuses and mix in three new zones. These zones will be Year 10 & 11, Year 8 & 9 and Year 7. This allows staff to teach in their own classrooms, reducing movement of teaching staff and minimising movement of students in key stage 3. As before lockdown, students in years 7, 8 & 9 should wear their PE kit on days they have PE lessons, to avoid crowds in the changing rooms.

Teachers are poised to hit the ground running when students return and will be planning for teaching new content and recapping previous content delivered during lockdown. It is important that students return ready to learn, fully equipped. Please remember that two face masks and small hand sanitiser are included in students’ expected school equipment.

It is likely that the vast majority of students are wanting to get back to normal as soon as possible. However, we are also aware there will be some students who will need extra support on their return from lockdown. Our Safeguarding and Emotional Wellbeing Lead, Miss Cropper, will be working with pastoral teams to ensure these students are identified and get the support they need. If you have any concerns about your child’s return to school, please do not hesitate to get in touch, via your child’s Pastoral Head of Year or Form Tutor.

Last week we saw our first Wednesday afternoon of Enrichment Supporting Wellbeing. It was a great success, getting students away from their screens and taking part in activities including cooking, Duke of Edinburgh and supporting charities.