8th November 2019

With the recent drop in temperature and downpours of rain, I urge all students to bring a dark coloured coat to school to avoid starting the day cold, wet and not in an appropriate condition to learn.  We open the canteen from 8 am and they serve hot drinks and breakfast food until 8.35 am.

To clarify our uniform position, students must arrive and leave the school in full uniform.  It is not acceptable to remove ties or to get changed into non uniform without permission to do so.  This is so that students can be easily identified should there be a need to do so.  I must congratulate the vast majority of students that travel to and from school in this way.  They set an excellent standard and reputation for the school.  However, where it is a disappointment is when I receive a few comments where the students let themselves down and at the same time tarnish the very good reputation of the school.  The Education Act does allow the school to sanction for events out of school in these circumstances; I wish to make both parents/carers and students aware that if their actions are poor we will apply sanctions where necessary and appropriate for behaviours that are reported to us.

Well done to the students in maintaining the high standard of uniform and to you as parents/carers for checking and ensuring your child/ren arrive at school safely, and with the necessary elements to make their day successful.

Bryan Erwin
Principal

Mrs J Sothmann

These days are designed to further enrich and develop our 'normal' school curriculum. The timings and expectations of the day remain the same as any other school day, the only significant difference is that the students do not attend their Tuesday timetabled lessons, instead they will work through a range of different activities.
 
Each year group will attend a different set of activities throughout the day, these include:

• Music workshops
• An interactive poetry day
• A live band performance
• Humanities investigation day
• Safety presentations from our safer schools officer.
• Science extended experiments
• Health and well-being activities

Please look out for photo updates via social media throughout the day on Tuesday.
 

Mr D Whales
Vice Principal

In this performance six different choirs from around Peterborough and Cambridgeshire presented a short programme, before joining together for a 'massed choir' of over 150 at the end. This was a fantastic event and one that we look forward to repeating in March 2020. 

The whole evening was in support of Cancer Research UK and this week it was a pleasure to welcome their representative into school to receive a cheque for £1000, the amount raised. A huge thank you to all that were involved in the event, giving their time up for a wonderful cause and having a wonderful evening in the process. 

Mr. Norman,
Subject Leader: Music

These raffle tickets have been collected in and one winner has been drawn at random for each year.  The winners have been celebrated in assemblies this week and given an amazon voucher as their reward.

The winners for Autumn term one are:

Y11  Krisha Kukaneswaran
Y10 Jessica Barnes
Y9  Deivydas Sapiega
Y8  Ella Andrews
Y7  Lilie-Mai Holman

The reward raffle starts anew this half term, so start answering questions and trying hard and you may well be the next winner.
 

Mr Mantell
Head of Faculty: Science

Yet again the boys performed extremely well, going 1 - 0 up after about 10 minutes with a lovely strike from Colbey. A dominant display saw our boys take full control with a second goal just after half time. A good period of passing saw the ball worked out wide, meaning Oliver Chapman put in a great cross which came off a defender and landed in the net.
However, a period of complacency meant that Jack Hunt got back into the game, pulling it back to 2 - 2 with roughly 5 minutes to play. Although that didn't matter as our strength through the middle of the pitch saw Callum with some excellent defending, Thomas, Jamie, and Owen with controlled and intelligent football in midfield, Colbey with fantastic striker hold up play, all of which saw Tyrell bomb down the right wing like Usain Bolt, drilling a fantastic low cross into the box for an on rushing Oliver Chapman to smash the ball into the net winning us the game 3-2.
Once again a brilliant game and result, but a fantastic attitude from all the boys.
 

Mr R Lomas
Science Teacher

Students are still enjoying the extra-curricular activities in Lego League and Science Club. Y7s are getting into their new topics and are applying the skills they learned last term and Y9s have begun their GCSE lessons after the success of their zoo project. Y11 are working towards achieving their best in the upcoming PPEs after an evening of considering their future qualifications and potential careers.

GCSE Revision Guides
Last half term the Science department sent letters home with Y10 and Y11 students, offering the opportunity to buy a revision guide at a much-reduced price. Please can we remind you that the deadline for returns and payment is today, Friday 8 November. If you still wish to buy a revision guide, please ensure that payment is received by the extended deadline,Tuesday 12 November at the latest and ask your son or daughter to pick up another letter from Mrs Young on Monday if needed.

Y11 Science PPEs - Tuesday 19 November
The exam fortnight is fast approaching and for some Y11 students the pressure has never felt higher. With this in mind, the Science department have decided to reduce the revision workload, by sharing the general topics that the Y11 classes need to focus their revision on. This is still a wide scope of Science to learn, so please keep up the revision hours that we have been recommending all year. Every Y11 student made a revision plan in tutor time at the start of term, so now would be a good time to make sure you are sticking to that!

The Triple Science PPEs are being held in class time in the run-up to the PPE weeks. 11A1 need to revise everything from Y10. 11A4 need to revise all the Biology they have learned so far.

All other groups are sitting the Combined Science paper, either higher or foundation. If you are unsure of the tier you have been entered for please ask your teacher. These are your main areas for revision:

Please remember to attend the revision sessions after school every other Monday, for exam tips and focused revision. With good preparation you don't need good luck.
But we're all wishing you good luck anyway!

Mrs K Young
Science

Mrs C Read
Head of Year 7

Year 7 got their first experience of secondary school cross country this week and wow did they do well. With the odd moan as they walked into the changing rooms, all students walked out to the field ready for their course briefing with Mr Bradley with a smile on their face. Typically, as the briefing started, the rain poured and everyone was soaked before they had even started warming up. This didn’t stop all students from getting around the course though, and even when on lap two covered in mud and concentrating on staying upright, a lot of the students were still smiling. 

A massive well done to all who completed the course, you did so well in some tough conditions. Bring on next year!
 

Miss Z Marley
PE

The idea of the Community Cinema Project is to provide an opportunity for the people in the local area to experience great films on the big screen at a reasonable cost. The hope is that this project will bring together people of all ages in our community to enjoy films with family and friends.

We start the project with the huge hit movie “The Greatest Showman” (singalong version), starring Hugh Jackman, amongst others, before moving onto Christmas favourites and other great titles.

The dates and details we have so far are:-

Friday 15 November : The Greatest Showman (sing-a-long version)
Friday 13 December: Elf (shown with subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing)
Friday 7 February 2020: Grease (sing-a-long version)

The series will then continue into 2020 each month with some more recent films.

For each showing the doors will open at 5.30pm with the film starting at 6.00pm.
Tickets are priced at £4.50 for adults, £3.00 for children, with a Family Ticket available at £15.00.
These are available on the door or in advance via www.ticketsource.co.uk/kscs

We really hope that you will be able to join us next week for this exciting community development.

Mr R Norman
Head of Faculty: Performing Arts

We arrived at the fixture to be told we’d be playing outside (much to the girl’s surprise as they are used to the nice warm sports hall). Warm ups began promptly whilst eyeing up the opposition. The girls gave the game their all, showing nothing but resilience, determination and teamwork throughout. It wasn’t meant to be this time and now it’s time to refocus and get training ready for the next match!

Miss Z Marley
PE

These students have stood out with their effort, attitude, kindness and progress. Their names our now on our MFL reward board and they have received letters and postcards home. 

Overall, we have had a great start to French and Italian this year and are especially happy with the new Year 7's eagerness to learn a foreign language at secondary school. We have had lots of fun activities and interesting discussions about links between languages that our students speak and Italian.

One year 10 class trialled a new activity recently, making verb flowers. Here are some examples:
 

Miss H Beckingham
MFL

Students had to write an application as to why they wanted to apply for an Ambassador Role at Ken Stimpson. Roles ranged from Head Girl/Head Boy, English Ambassadors to Digital Leaders. All students attended a meeting with their Head of Year or Faculty and delivered a very well planned and rehearsed interview.  

Congratulations to all students, I am very much looking forward to working with the Student Council this year and seeing what new ideas our Ambassadors bring!

Mrs J Purdy

In order to support your child to achieve we ask that they attend school every day, unless there is an exceptional reason for needing to be absent.

Some top tips our parents have found useful are to:

• Make getting students to school on time every day a top priority
• Monitor your child’s attendance. Remember just 2 absences each month can put your child off track academically
• Develop back up plans for getting to school if something comes up
• Avoid medical appointments and holidays during the school day/term
• Don’t allow your child to miss school for minor illnesses, such as a cold or runny nose.
• Let the school know if you are facing a major barrier to attendance so they can offer available support and resources
• Talk about the importance of attendance for success in school and life

 
Some absences could be avoided and will be unauthorised by Ken Stimpson. These include:

• Trivial illness
• Minding the house or waiting for deliveries etc
• Packing or getting ready for a holiday or trip
• Being on holiday
• Looking after brothers and sisters
• Looking after a sick relative
• Helping with housework or family business
• Being unhappy or not getting on with others at Ken Stimpson
• Penalty Notices will be issued by Peterborough City Council:
• If the pupil has attendance levels of 90% or below and at least 8 sessions of unauthorised absences.
• Unauthorised holidays (please note any absence for 2 days or over will need medical evidence)
• If a student is late after the close of the registers persistently and their attendance is below 90%
   

This image and caption was tweeted by Richard Branson, one of the UK’s most successful and influential business people.  He is pictured running to a meeting to ensure he is on time.  Nothing annoys him more than poor punctuality.  
Everybody at KSCS also takes attendance and punctuality very seriously.  One of the key roles of a school is to prepare our young people for the world of work.  As Richard Branson states “Punctuality shows organisation and respect for others”.  Being able to turn up to work or an appointment on time is vital.  Persistent lateness to work will almost inevitably result in a dismissal and so getting into the habit of arriving at school on time is a key life skill.  Furthermore, when a pupil arrives late to school, there are many other consequences:

• He or she misses out on essential instructions given at the beginning of lessons.  In fact, arriving 5 minutes late each day adds up to missing 3 entire days of school by the end of the year.
• Pupils might feel awkward and embarrassed going into the classroom when everyone else is already settled.
• When one person arrives late everyone loses out as the class is disrupted and the teacher must take time away from the other pupils to explain what is going on for the lesson.
• Students who are frequently late develop a pattern of lateness which often means they arrive late for GCSE or A’ Level examinations, negatively affecting their performance in their terminal examinations. 

Peterborough City Council require us to issue Penalty Notices for a variety of reasons, including “persistent late arrival at school after the register has closed contributing to a level of attendance of 90% or below”.  The school will take account of individual circumstances in each case, however we wish to make it very clear that the following reasons are not valid reasons for being late to school:

• “I got up late” or “My alarm did not go off”
• “The bus was late” or “Traffic” (except in exceptional circumstances, such as a break down)
• “I couldn’t find my uniform / coursework / PE kit / etc”
• “My parents made me late”
• “I was taking my brother or sister to school.”
• “I had an appointment” or “Mum/Dad had an appointment” (These should be made outside of school term unless it is an emergency or no other option.  In such cases an appointment card should be shown to the Attendance Officer on the gate or to Reception staff upon signing in after 9.00am) 

Since September students have been having 30 minutes sanction after school on the same day of the late arrival.  If students fail to arrive to this, then they will receive an IEU sanction the following day.
In addition to this, Mrs Blackledge will also be inviting the parents / carers of those students who are persistently late to school in for meetings to discuss how they can improve their attendance and /or punctuality in order to avoid receiving a fine from the Local Authority.  

We thank you for your continued support in helping our school to improve attendance and punctuality.

Mr K Abbott & Mrs S Blackledge
Assistant Principal/School Attendance Officer