Tuesday 31st March 2020

Today was a day of cardio and creativity!

Thank you to Miss Hunt, Mrs Jones (Art teacher) and Mrs Jones (Transition mentor), who supported our students today.

After a morning read and Joe Wicks, Miss Hunt took the students to the Cardio Suite for more exercise: “We put some music on and the students completed as many of the 8 cardio and strength challenges as they could, including rowing, cycling, running, tricep dips and a timed plank. We recorded their scores and the Beckett siblings got very competitive - there were only 2 points between them by the end of the session!”

They then helped Mrs Bradbury-Cheetham to finish their spray painting in the quad. Mr Sadler even had a go!

Mrs Jones then did some more Art work: “Students created stand-up cards inspired, by the work of an illustrator/designer. Excellent outcomes were produced by Bethany Beckett, Aidan Beckett and Gypsy Mongan. Well done - you are fabulous young artists!”

Following their one mile walk with both Mrs Jones, they returned to complete more work set by their teachers online, remembering to communicate by email once done.

Our Coronavirus Heroes today are Mrs Burgess and Mrs Guess, who came in to collect some dried foods and feminine hygiene products to share with Chelwood Foodbank in Adswood, Stockport.  As you can imagine, the staff at Chelwood were absolutely delighted.

Please can I remind parents that, whilst not in school, students should not be leaving the house to congregate with their friends. We have had reports that some students (not necessarily from Kingsway) have been meeting up at Bruntwood Park and other local places. This is completely against the government’s advice and dangerous for their health and that of others. Please make sure you know that your children are abiding by the government instructions to stay home, stay safe.

Thank you.

Wednesday 1st April 2020

Thank you to Mr Weil, Miss Francis, Miss Slater and Miss Halligan, who came into school to support our students today.

Students are now used to the routine of reading, Joe Wicks, learning, walking and independent work. Having a timetable helps them to feel comfortable, knowing what the structure of what the day will bring - even though the content may vary.

Miss Halligan started the day: “We looked at how Shakespeare has influenced the English language through his plays!”.

After break, Miss Slater took over: “Today we have been learning about some celebrities that speak other languages (Shakira speaks the most with 5!). We then started competing against each other on duolingo and looked at some funny translations. We now know that we are better at French than Google translate!”

“We have also been doing some Tik Tok dances. I can do the steps to renegade very slowly but not when the song is playing! I'll have to practise so we can do it all together next time! Thank you to Aidan, Beth and Gypsy for being excellent company today!”

In the afternoon, Miss Francis and Miss Slater took the students for their daily mile walk: “Aiden was very sprightly during our walk (see skipping the picture). We talked about cats and dogs and how Aiden's dog Chloe is almost as big as him (it is an Alsatian).  Miss Slater told us a funny story of her friend’s cats biting her face...she now dislikes cats.”

Finally, the local authority has brought to our attention a scam, which has appeared in the last 18 hours or so. It says something like: ‘As schools are now closed and you are identified as being eligible to receive vouchers for Free School Meals. You are required to urgently provide details to ensure that you do not miss out. Since these are electronic vouchers, they are being paid directly into your bank account and so you are required to send your bank account details and sort code details. Please respond via text to . . . ‘

The LA have asked us to inform you that THEY WILL NEVER, NOR WILL THE DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION, ASK FOR BANK DETAILS.

Our Kingsway Coronavirus Hero today is Year 11 student, Eleanor Burgess who was very resourceful and creative at home, highlighting the importance of staying home to save the pressure on our NHS.

Thursday 2nd April 2020

Thursday’s team comprised of Miss Heard, Miss Dean, Ms Watson and Mr Knott along with our two entrepid students. The day started with some reading after meeting in the canteen, this was followed with the usual fitness routine from Joe Wicks - although, Mrs Heard was probably the most active.

The group then had a session of reading. This included reading Billionaire Boy - a story about a boy whose dad invented a special type of toilet paper, and made a fortune. I think we can call that a contemporary theme!

Afterwards Miss Heard and Miss Dean explored persuasive forms of writing. They looked at different forms including poems, speeches and raps. After studying different techniques they were then challenged to come up with their own persuasive writing about the Covid 19 pandemic. Their creative juices flowed with the expert help on hand, and to finish off they were able to enact their pieces.

By now it was time for some more exercise and everybody, along with Mr Knott ventured on a 1.5 mile walk, occasionally able to enjoy the sunshine breaking through the clouds.

Having completed the on-line learning by popular request we spent the final part of the day in the cardio suite.

Friday 3rd April 2020

It’s Friday and the end of the Spring Term, but not as we know it.

Thank you to Miss Woodyer , Mrs Bartle, Mrs Lucas, Mrs Burgess and Mr McNulty who came into school to support our students today.

Who says three's a crowd! After the usual meet and greet , the three students who joined us today started with a bit of reading of ‘Billionaire Boy’ with Mr Mc Nulty. At 9am prompt, they arrived eagerly at the Hall. I couldn't decide whether they were smiling because they were looking forward to doing Joe Wicks’ Spiderman themed routine or because of the fact that this was the last one of the week! Eventually, I decided they were just pleased to see that all of the staff were taking part, which added to the entertainment . Mr McNulty was pretty good, even if he was wearing his suit unlike some others who have all the gear but have no idea!

After a quick cool down and some much needed H2O, they headed to B25 for a coding session using the BBCmicrobit. Each student managed to create a program and with a little help, one of them even created a game of rock, paper scissors on this tiny programmable device - very impressive.

After a short break, they went on to create something a little more yummy and satisfying for some. They made flapjacks in one of our food technology classrooms with Mrs Lucas, and some also made a mess! They were excellent at cleaning up though.

After lunch, students worked with Mrs Lucas again; this time they were plotting coordinates to draw an Easter egg before heading off for a brisk walk around Cheadle Village, accompanied by Miss Woodyer and Mrs Bartle. Miss Woodyer forgot to map the route but confidently says it was at least as far as Mr Knott’s Mile and a half on Thursday and probably faster .

Following their walk, they returned to work in B25 with Miss Woodyer and there is no prizes for guessing what she had them doing: more coding. All three students coded a dance party https://www.code.org dance I am not sure who enjoyed it more, the students or Miss Woodyer!

Our local authority have sent schools a Family Easter Activity Challenge for the Easter holiday period.

Also today, the Department for Education released guidance to schools, parents and students about the awarding of GCSE grades for the current Year 11 cohort. A letter to students can be found by following this link:

Wednesday 25th March

Five students today and four teaching staff: Mrs Bradbury-Cheetham, Mrs Burgess, Miss Wildgoose and myself, supported by our premises team and canteen staff.

After the usual morning health check routine, students were given an outline for the day before taking part in Joe Wicks’ workout … phew!

After their workout, the students created some stencils in Art with Mrs Marsh and Mrs Bradbury-Cheetham in readiness for brightening up our Quad.

After a break, there was more physical activity with Miss Wildgoose where the older students could use the cardio equipment, whilst the younger ones played badminton.

After lunch, our band of students were taken into the quad by Mrs Marsh and Mrs Burgess and got busy with some spray paints, using the stencils they had made earlier. What a brighter place they have made our quad.

The local authority educational psychology service has produced some useful resources to support parents in communicating to their children about the virus. You can find a link to this information here: https://stockport.fsd.org.uk/kb5/stockport/fsd/service.page?id=IjkDfHe3E4E&familychannel=999

Kingsway Coronavirus Heroes today must include our premises team: Mr Cross, Ms Burns, Mr Naughton and Mr Madden (who have made sure our premises are open, clean and operational). With regards to cleaning, just to let our parents and students know that you will not be able to access the school site in light of the advice to minimise any travel. Our Foxland campus is now shut down for a deep clean and much of our Broadway campus is also inaccessible following deep cleaning. We still have a team of cleaners in school each day cleaning the rooms that have been used during the supervision of students.

Also, Mrs Bradbury-Cheetham, who with the help of Mr Naughton, delivered 50 rolls of desperately needed paper towels to the pathology department at The Christie Hospital.

Another hero is Mr Humphreys, our Network Manager, who has been available throughout the week to support staff with any ICT issues, all from the comfort of his home!

Keep safe everyone.

Thursday 26th March

The day started with the students following Joe Wick’s workout in the hall. Ms Burrows and Ms Owen set an impressive example as they completed the work-out too. Miss Linnecor had sensibly opted to be in charge of the technology whilst Mr Knott monitored reception.

Following that our students moved on to completing Curved Stitching activities requiring good levels of concentration. They managed to create some impressive designs.

After a short break they then started to construct an enlarged jigsaw from a picture of Bart Simpson. Trying to keep the right proportions from the original proved to be more of a challenge than first thought.

Lunchtime was spent enjoying the sunshine in Broadway Quad, and then followed by some exercise playing table tennis and badminton.

Our Kingsway Coronavirus Heroes today include Mr Traynor who has signed up to support the NHS in any capacity he can via. https://www.goodsamapp.org/NHS. He has promised some updates which I will share with you in the weeks ahead.

Our other invisible heroes are our Canteen staff (Chris, Lisa and Kyle) who have come into school every day to make sure our students and staff have access to a healthy meal. They have also very kindly donated around 100 eggs to our charity foodbank collection today.

Friday 27th March

Happy Friday everyone - though with such strange times, it’s hard to know where our week began and ended!

I hope you all got a chance to Clap for our Carers last night. It was really lovely to hear the applause for our amazing NHS staff in my street. I received this lovely email, via Mrs Wardle this morning: 

Dear Miss Wardle, 

As you posted the being grateful note on the year 7 notice board, myself and my family all stood outside with our neighbours and clapped for the NHS who we are very grateful for. We also live across from an ability centre and we saw the nurses cleaning the wheelchairs so we kindly sent them a cup of coffee each and an Easter egg as a thank you for everything they do. 

Yours Sincerely,  Millie Tanswell 7W

Back at school this morning, our students were given the pleasure (not sure they see it like that) of doing the Joe Wick’s workout again with Mr Nicholson leading the way!

The group then worked with Mr Burniston and Mr Nicholson. Here’s Mr B’s report: “Today the group were studying the issue of litter around school through hypothesis testing.  After discussing what the problems were, the students carried out a survey of Broadway site. They successfully used their map and data collection skills to record and collate the data.  Back in the classroom, we used excel spreadsheets to calculate totals and generate graphs to analyse. Each student then came up with an action plan to help to reduce the amount of litter around school. The conclusion? Too many students not using the bins provided!”

After lunch, students worked on analysing the data they had collected in the morning and did some more maths before heading off for a walk. Knowing Mr Burniston and Mr Nicholson, it will have been a pretty pacey walk!

The day ended with a session on how our students can save our planet. What message would they like to give to the next generation?

Finally, included in this blog is a letter to parents from the local authority for your information.

Also, a reminder that there are regular updates for parents on our website.  You can access this by using the link to the Parent Noticeboard on the parents page of our website. 

Similarly, our students each have a specific tab for their year group, which they should check on FROG. Here they will read daily messages from their Raising Standards’ Leader and other bits of information.

A shout out to today’s coronavirus heroes Mr Mahmood and for the second time in a week Mr Humphreys, who remotely solved the issue of the projector showing everything upside down in the data analysis lesson.

Following the egg collection yesterday, Mr Mahmood sent me this email:

Last night the eggs were separated and placed in over 70 food parcels which are going out to the following places:

• homeless shelters
• referral centres
• elderly people who have been in contact asking for a pack of food and essential items
• others self isolating

We have been overwhelmed with requests and have been supporting various different groups set up in response to covid-19, including the council and other charities to provide as much support as possible. Eggs (as we know) are a difficult item to get hold of; I am sure the recipients of these packs will be extremely happy to see them inside.

It's that time of year when the reality of the exams are setting in and many of our Year 11 students are putting above and beyond into their studies.  We are really proud of those students who are dedicated to their studies and are showing a positive attitude towards their revision. We are equally delighted that businesses in our local community are recognising this and have very kindly donated some amazing reward prizes for our students.  The prizes range from coffee and cake packages, a range of hair treatments and a designer bag. To add to this, we are also donating £200 to a prize draw for students with 100% attendance.

We are very grateful to the following businesses:

• Coffee Fix
• Gatley Barbers
• Angela Lewis Hair and Brow Lounge
• Magic Moments
• Bxrbers Barber shop
• Lounge 66
• We are Garage
• Me Time Hairdressing

If you are able to add to our fantastic prizes, please contact Mrs Jones on a.jones@kingsway.stockport.sch.uk

We work hard to continually improve our school to make sure all students have the best experience possible.  As part of that process, we like to hear from all our stakeholders. Last Tuesday we invited a number of Year 7 parents to provide honest and constructive feedback on both the transition process as well as their Year 7 experiences to date.  The parents were all extremely helpful, enabling us to reflect on the following areas: transition, homework, improvements to our communication system, catering, social media usage and uniform. We also discussed ways in which our older students can be positive role models for our younger pupils.  One message that came through loud and clear was that our parents were very happy with our recent Ofsted report and are very proud to be part of The Kingsway School. This week we will continue to build on collecting information by meeting with key groups in our local community. Following both these meetings, we will then develop an action plan and share this with everyone involved.  If you would like to be part of future forums, we welcome parents in any year group to email a.jones@kingsway.stockport.sch.uk

Finally, you may recall that The Kingsway School converted to an academy in 2016. As part of this process an Academy Trust called ‘Abney Trust’ was created to govern the schools within the trust. Since then, we have been the only school in our trust and trustees have recently been considering ways in which we can be part of a larger trust, where we can benefit from shared expertise and financial efficiencies.

We are now considering transferring our Trust to the Education Learning Trust (ELT). This trust has been in place for around 3 years and comprises two of our feeder primary schools (Meadowbank Primary School and Gatley Primary School) as well as a third primary school in Bredbury, Stockport.

As part of the decision for Abney Trust to join the ELT, we want to seek the views of our parents. Parents can contribute to the consultation, a link to which will be sent to you in an email.

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We were understandably delighted with many comments made in the report, which we feel really captured the essence of our school. Comments such as:

“Pupils can be themselves in this school community”

“Pupils are happy, confident and upbeat”

“Pupils are inspired by their learning”

“Pupils are provided with the knowledge and skills they need to be successful”

“Pupils get to learn things which will enrich their lives”

The inspectors visited lessons, talked to staff and students and looked at students’ work to come to a judgement that our school is a GOOD school which provides a GOOD quality of education.

How important is this judgement?

For me, the decisions I make as Headteacher are not for the benefit of Ofsted, but are for the benefit of every young person in our care. Every child, irrespective of background, is entitled to a good education that springboards them to a successful, happy future.

Nonetheless, we must pay regard to the research and guidance carried out by the Department of Education in relation to the curriculum experience our students receive. There has been much in the press about Ofsted’s lack of favour for schools who are quoted as narrowing their curriculum by reducing the number of subjects students study, particularly in Years 7 to 9.

However, schools are also expected to demonstrate how they are working towards achieving the government’s ambition is to see 75% of pupils studying the EBacc subject combination at GCSE by 2022, and 90% by 2025. This requires students to study a specific set of qualifications: English, Maths, Science, History or Geography and a Modern Foreign Language.

So how do schools meet both expectations? To offer a broad, rich curriculum and ensure high numbers of students achieve the EBacc? How do schools juggle this in a climate of real term cuts to budgets of around 8% and a teacher recruitment crisis?

At Kingsway, the answer is strong leadership and governance, passionate and committed staff and a relentless determination to do the best for every student.

It is therefore no wonder, I was a blubbering mess of tears of joy when the report arrived in my inbox. Thank goodness they saw what I know we are  - a really great school on a journey to outstanding!

One particular area of focus during our inspection was the opportunities we provide for students to enrich their experience and close the gap for those students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Here inspectors saw that staff considered carefully the wider curriculum and ensure there is something on offer for everyone.

Two such examples took place last week:

On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before half term Year 8 students have visited St Mary's Church in Cheadle as part of their studies on Christianity. During the visits students have explored the features of a traditional church, the life of a church and what it means to be a Christian today. Mr Tither reports that the students represented the school well and as usual were a credit to us.  After half term, year 8 students will begin their studies on Islam. This will involve a similar trip to Cheadle Mosque in June.

The last Wednesday of half term marked the culmination of four months of hard work, research, drafting and redrafting for our Year 9 Scholars Program students. Having completed their 2000 word essays on Art In Public Spaces, they were honoured and celebrated with a full graduation ceremony at the University of Manchester, which the students and their parents greatly enjoyed. The experience gave them an invaluable insight into university life and how study methods can change as they move through their education. This was a huge challenge for the students as they had never written anything so lengthy (with full referencing required!) but all passed with some even gaining what their PhD tutor marked as a First class essay in her eyes. Well done Sameer Shafiq, Zak Hutchinson, Jean De Dieu Molomba, Thurman Abdalla, Macie Godfrey, Alec Nixon, Jessica Buckley, Jessica Fahey, Elise Maylett-Keane, Zayn Khan, Nina Berkovitch and Esme Hopkins-Powell.

Mrs Clarke, Mr Carr and parents looked on with pride.

Finally, Mrs Mackay shared some photos of the fantastic Year 7 medieval castles which students completed for homework. The focus of this unit is ‘changes over time’ and groundwork for Key Stage 4 where students study Kenilworth Castle in depth.

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The Kingsway Association (PTA) is trying a way to increase the funds available to school without costing anyone a penny. Easyfundraising.org.uk is an easy way you can help raise money for The Kingsway Association. Buy your internet shopping from over 4,000 retailers and a percentage of what you spend is donated to The Kingsway Association at no additional cost to you. Retailers include Amazon, John Lewis, eBay, Tesco and many more.

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