KC News Round Up Friday 20th October 2023

And they're off! Students, staff, parents and dogs set off for this year's Sponsored Walk this morning to complete a 10km walk around the local area. As of Friday morning, the money raised by donations was already at 171% of the original target of £1,000 with a grand total of £1,710 raised so far! We hope this increases even more over the course of the day.

The charities we are raising money for are Folly Wildlife, Action for AT, and APOPO. If you would like to donate, please click on the button below.

Boarding

The boarders in H&H and J&O took part in a picture treasure hunt on Sunday organised by Head of Boarders Ping Ping and Deputy Heads of Boarders Jazmine and Sia. The girls were placed in groups of ten and given eight pictures of various sites around the campus that they should find. Upon finding the sites, the girls stood in front of each site in their groups and took a picture as proof. The fastest team to get a picture in front of all eight sites won! A huge thanks to Dr Cowie for helping us to run this activity.

The boarders also enjoyed a fantastic trip to Hollywood Bowl in Tunbridge Wells this weekend!

Drama Mentors

Our GCSE Drama Mentors are working brilliantly. Their new badges have arrived, and they have been enjoying supporting the younger students with their GCSE Drama course.

Music Trip to Iolanthe

Musicians from Year 7 to Upper Sixth went to see Iolanthe at English National Opera last week and everybody loved it. The students even got to meet Iolanthe afterwards! They are all very keen to put the show on at KC this year at some point so watch this space… Here's what some of the students said:

“It was really funny; you always think of opera as so serious, but this wasn’t like that at all.’ Madeleine, Year 10

"The opera was incredible! All the performers were amazing and the use of modern humour throughout the staging was very clever. I particularly liked the choreography and how it was used to present the characters in different and ridiculous ways and how they cleverly changed certain aspects of the story using the choreography and direction to fit a more modern audience whilst keeping the same ultimate storyline". Beatrice, Year 12

"It was an absolute blast! I honestly thought I was going to crack a rib I was laughing so much". Sarah, Year 10

Lower Sixth Art & Photography Trip

"On Thursday 12th October we took a trip to the National Portrait Gallery to kick start our portraiture unit. The Art students looked around the gallery and did some visual analysis and first hand drawings/responses to the portraits around them to further develop their projects. The Photography students visited Yevonde’s exhibition. Yevonde was a vivacious and innovative photographer who worked for six decades of the 20th century who embraced rapid changes and technological advances in the photographic process.

After lunch the photographers met up in Trafalgar Square to do some practical work. This was a good opportunity to take some stitching shots. Stitching is the process of combining multiple (around 12) photos taken in the same spot while changing the cameras perspective with overlapping fields of view, to produce a panorama at a high-quality resolution. Then to start our portraiture project we tried to take a portrait of a pigeon, for this we needed to ensure our cameras were set at a high shutter speed to make sure we captured the pigeon before they walked off as we did not have control over them.

Lastly, we went to the Hungerford Bridge at Charing Cross to take some more stitching shots, as from the bridge we could see across a large horizon which is perfect for a panorama." Piper, Lower Sixth

Upper Sixth Sociology Trip

The Upper Sixth Sociology pupils witnessed and experienced the criminal justice system in action attending a full day of criminal law hearings at the Sevenoaks Magistrates' Court. The girls heard cases presented by the Crown Prosecution Service and lawyers for the defence, with key interjections from the probation service. Some defendants appeared in person whilst others appeared on Zoom links from prison where they had engaged in further offending. Deepening their understanding of the causes of crime, the girls noted that the cases involved alcohol or drug abuse, poor mental and physical health, loss of key relationships and jobs. The girls were struck by the human and emotional cost to both the perpetrators of crime and their families, some of whom were sitting next to us in the Public Gallery. They noted the compassion and respect shown to all defendants and the embedding in sentencing of measures to rehabilitate and improve life chances. The girls were provided with useful leadership modelling, as the proceedings were presided over by three female magistrates and three female defendant solicitors.

Sixth Form EPQ

Upper Sixth students are currently presenting their EPQ presentations as part of the assessment process to gain their EPQ qualifications. Presentations are presented to both staff and students and include the research and findings of their chosen research field.

The Extended Project Qualification is a curriculum enrichment pathway offered to Sixth Form Students here at Kent College, which involves students producing a detailed project (5000 word essay or artefact) on an academic or personal interest after 90 hours of independent study. The Extended Project Qualification is highly valued by universities and prospective employers as it promotes independent learning skills, knowledge of academic referencing and is worth half an A-Level in terms of UCAS points. Students who complete an EPQ are also likely to receive lower offers from prospective universities.

Examples of this year's project titles include:

• "How did, both internal and external factors, contribute to the fall of the Western Roman Empire during 5th century AD?"
• "Self-inflicted illnesses – what are the predominant causes and are they more prevalent in the Western World?”
• "Are the measures taken by the UK Government effective in deciding if asylum seekers, who enter the UK illegally, should be granted asylum?"
• "Is it possible to create a piece of generative art that is fully integrated with traditional media?"
• "Is it possible to improve the symptoms resulting from the effects fronto-temporal dementia. Could there be a possible cure?"

History Culture Club

History Culture Club has started up this term beginning with a student-led, Black History Month assembly. We carried on the BHM focus by being taught how to make Jollof rice by Adwoa a KC student from Ghana. We all enjoyed learning about a new dish.

We will be exploring a different culture each term, delving into the history and the culture of each country. We will be exploring Greek history and culture after half term, led by a Sixth Form History student, Primrose, who used to live in Greece.

Halloween Bake Sale