Feast and fast

I would like to wish ‘Eid Mubarak’ to all our staff, students and families who have fasted for the last 30 days for the muslim tradition of Ramadan. For 30 days, our muslim community have not only fasted from food, but they have also refrained from anger and sin, instead focussing on charity and worship. Whilst many of us may consider fasting for 30 days a difficult, even unsurmountable, Ramadan is one of the most important months in the islamic calendar. Here’s what one of our year… students, Malaika Shehzad said: “I fast because it shows respect for my faith and enables me to demonstrate my dedication to my faith. Although it is tricky in the summer term, persevering not only allows me to show commitment but also shows me that I can achieve anything with a clear purpose and focus". I have been so proud to observe our staff and students respect their faith for the last 30 days and hope they had the most fabulous party when they could finally break their fast.

Whilst food and water may have been on short supply for our muslim students last month, there was plenty of rain for our Duke of Edinburgh participants this weekend. Here’s a report from Miss Horsey, expedition leader:

"This was most certainly our wettest expedition to date, with 38 students - walking in the rain, cooking in the rain, taking down camp in the rain and finishing in the rain; we certainly saw the UK's Great British weather on this expedition. Despite the more challenging weather conditions, the students’ determination to succeed shone through and all 38 students crossed the finish line on Saturday afternoon. Another highlight was the pancake breakfast teams, who cooked pancakes in the rain and gained orders from all teachers for a chocolate covered pancake - reminder girls, for some reason, we are still waiting for our pancakes...

A huge congratulations to all and I hope that Sunday's weather was kind enough to let them dry their equipment out, ready for the next group, next week!"

Winner, winner!

Welcome back to the final half term of the academic year. I hope you all had a lovely bank holiday break. I spent my week here in not-so-sunny Stockport, enjoying time with family and friends. I even tried my hand at golf for the first time. Not a bad first attempt, though I can’t see myself winning the Ryder Cup any time soon.

Thankfully, there were lots of winners at Kingsway before the half term break, starting with our top merit winners for March & April, who received their certificates and stars last week. Here’s where I found them...

Charlie Lund was in Food tech with Mrs Guess, where she was carrying out her final practical assessment. Charlie was making lemon and lime cheesecake decorated with fresh fruit slices. Delicious!

Emily Foster was revising for her end of year German test. The class were playing "Das Vermögen der Familie" (or family fortunes). Miss Slater, Emily’s teacher (pictured below) was delighted with Emily’s award: “Emily always works hard in German and I have no doubt that she will be very pleased with her result on her test!”.

Amy Berry was in GCSE RE with Mr Williams where he was teaching Muslim beliefs about crime. Amy was contributing well to the discussion about the causes of crime in society in relation to a person's upbringing and socio-economic circumstances that could lead to hopelessness. Discussion was had whether the responsibility for changing this lay with the government, the education system or the parents.

Double Winners, Ella-Grace Smith and Rocio McGilvary were found in English, working hard on their timed responses. Miss Mullin was pleased to tell me that both girls “are starting to feel more prepared to tackle their end of year exams”.

Finally, Emma Boaler was also busy revising for her end of year Science exam. Miss Murray explained: “we were doing a Q and A session on separation techniques. Students had to tell me based on their practical work what they did, what mixtures they could separate and explain how it worked”.

As well as being a terrific science teacher, Miss Murray is also our Professional Mentor for trainee teachers. Her role is to coordinate the training they receive from their university mentors with school based experience at Kingsway. We were recently visited by MMU to review the school based provision we provide for their graduates and as a result we were accredited as a Leading Partnership School. This reflects our commitment to school based training, not only from Miss Murray, but all the exceptional subject based mentors we have around the school.

More hopeful winners this summer are our Year 11 students from the class of 2019, who are well in to their GCSE examinations. To help stimulate their minds, Mr Sadler and the English department arrived early on Friday morning to write some key quotes from An Inspector Calls and ‘Conflict’ poetry on the school playground. Whatever next … Pythagoras Theorem on the back of the toilet doors?