KC News Round Up Friday 28th June 2024

Students in Years 8 and 9 have been taking part in team building afternoons in the forest school areas. Students have enjoyed tackling the confidence course and toasting marshmallows on the campfire. Year 9 also had the opportunity to spend an evening in Tilley afterwards for a fun evening hosted by the Lower Sixth officers, including games and pizza.

Soroptimist Club Second Anniversary

The Soroptimist Club celebrated their second anniversary this week with a lovely presentation in the Eco Garden. The students who have participated for the past two years were thanked with certificates of appreciation and the Year 10s talked about what they enjoyed most during their membership.

Years 7 to 9 Speech and Drama Showcase

Students in Year 7 to 9 took to the stage on Tuesday to perform their LAMDA assessed pieces to families at our Speech and Drama Showcase. Throughout the year we have seen fantastic performances from these students that have resulted in 90% of graded exams awarded a Distinction, the highest grade possible.

Our Year 11 to Upper Sixth students took acting exams at Bronze, Silver or Gold Medal level, for which they all received a Distinction.

Congratulations to everyone for their hard work and commitment to deliver exceptional results.

Claire Danson

We were thrilled to welcome para athlete, Claire Danson, to KC this week for a day of inspirational talks, workshops and activities. In the summer of 2019, just weeks after being crowned European Triathlon Champion, Claire, collided with a tractor whilst out training. In an instant her future was transformed from professional triathlete to life in a wheelchair. Claire told her incredible story of surviving devastating injuries and her determination and commitment as she trains for the Paralympics in 2028 as a member of the British Cycling team.

HALO Project Day

Our AIM students took part in a HALO Project Day on Wednesday where they were looked into the topic 'Is Sport Political?' PE teacher, Mrs Sutton spoke about protests in the Olympics and the ethical questions around doping in sport, and business teacher, Mr Muttitt gave students some insights into the economics of the Olympic Games, and the bidding process. Following this, Claire Danson gave her thoughts on the question, touching on equipment, accessibility and how classification can affect para athletes.

Students worked together in small groups of 4 - 5 across year groups to research ideas and prepare a TED style talk with their take on the question. They shared some excellent ideas and managed to delve quite deeply into their chosen topic, especially as they only had a short time to prepare their talk.

We are so grateful that Claire could join us for the day to share her thoughts and her story. Thank you also to Mrs Sutton and Mr Muttitt for such interesting and insightful ideas to think about.

Students spoke positively about the event and we hope they all enjoyed the day and the insights they gained from the day.

We found today very inspiring. The guest speaker was very engaging and filled us with a sense of hope and showed us how important "cheerleading each other on” is. Thank you. Claudia and Poppy, Year 9

I really enjoyed hearing about Claire Danson's story as it was very inspiring. I also liked researching politics in sport as it was something I had never really thought about before. Listening to everybody else's presentations was also very interesting. Sophie, Year 10

The topic we talked about was very interesting. The speech from Claire Danson was very inspiring. I enjoyed the teamwork between different year groups. Alice, Year 8

We found the guest speakers story very interesting and inspiring. It was interesting to hear everybody's opinions about the topic we focused on and to dive deep into the Olympics and its politics behind it. Leah, Rosa, Sienna & Louise, Year 8

'Prep for Paris'

The PE staff and Sport Scholars ran a sports' activity afternoon for over 200 local primary school children and KC Prep pupils. They took part in gymnastics, hockey, dance, orienteering, cricket, rugby, athletics, tennis and fitness, as well as hearing from Claire Danson and being able to sit on her racing bike. It was a fabulous afternoon of sport, enjoyed by all the pupils, and thanks go the PE Department for organising the event.

Year 11 Prom

The Year 11 Prom took place in the theatre this week. This is always a highlight for Year 11 to celebrate the end of their exams and let their hair down.

Students enjoyed a buffet, soft drinks, disco and photobooth and had really dressed up for the occasion. It was a lovely way to celebrate their hard work over the last few months.

MFL Outreach Day

We were joined by Year 5 KC Prep pupils and pupils from Pembury Primary School for an outreach morning of MFL activities on Wednesday. Activities included chemistry experiments in French, making paella pictures in Spanish and learning about art in Spanish. The morning finished up with some fun sports outside, including relay races and a tug of war, where pupils were teamed up, representing either France or Spain.

GCSE Astronomy

As part of the GCSE Astronomy course, students visited the Observatory Science Centre in Herstmonceux, East Sussex on Thursday along with students from The Judd School and Skinners' School. The visit included an expert guided tour of the historic telescopes, a session in their digital planetarium with astronomy experts, time using solar telescopes where they viewed sunspots, plus free access to the static and interactive displays.

EAL Global Education Project

For the EAL international project “Education around the world," Mrs Field and some of our international students had their first meeting on Zoom with the Global Ambassadors of our Methodist partner school, Farringtons, and Machinga Secondary School in Malawi.

Following our Fairtade project in partnership with Farringtons School, we decided to extend our collaboration from local to global with a link to a school in Malawi. All students enjoyed this new experience, sharing information with each other and learning about people from another part of the world.

We are currently learning about Global Education. On Thursday, we interviewed the students of Machinga Secondary School in Malawi. I really enjoyed finding out their lifestyle which is quite surprising. They would wake up at 3am to have prayers and end school in the afternoon later than we do. Hailie, Year 9

It was surprising learning about how their whole transport system to hospitals worked. It made me realise how fortunate I am to have Sister on site and a school that is able to assist my medical needs. It was also very shocking to learn that they had to wake up at 3am for prayers and that they had got used to it. I think that they’re very sweet people and I would love to talk to them again! Adj, Year 9

Year 7 Commedia Del Arte

This week Year 7 concluded their Commedia scheme of work with a comedic and chaotic (in a good way) final performance. Performances were enhanced by the addition of homemade Commedia masks created by students. Year 7 classes have fully embraced this module and have thoroughly enjoyed exploring stock characters from this Italian style of theatre.

Classics Dinner

On Thursday, the annual Classics Dinner took place at Pizza Express in Tunbridge Wells. We celebrated the achievements of the departing Upper Sixth and also enjoyed catching up with past students, who left between 2015 and 2023.

Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award

Last weekend 50 students in Years 9 and 10 completed their D of E Bronze Award assessed expedition. Students showed a mixture of resilience in the rain and support for one another in the burning sun. They commented on how much they enjoyed being without technology for two whole days and loved the drone, fireworks and fly over which flew over Goudhurst on the Saturday night.

The assessors were incredibly impressed with the navigation and teamwork skills of the students and we are delighted to announce that all of them passed this part of the award! We are very proud of them and especially those students who pushed themselves out of their comfort zone to camp over for the night or trekked further than they had done before. Well done to everyone.

Transition Days

Students in Years 8 and 9 spent an afternoon meeting their new form tutors, new joiners, getting ready for the year ahead and taking part in fun, team-building activities.

Year 10 spent the afternoon with the Lower Sixth enjoying a BBQ lunch outside Tilley, followed by a quiz to determine where they started in a KC ‘race across the world’. After completing the challenges organised by Year 10 and Lower Sixth students, they headed back to Tilley for a well-deserved ice cream. The winning team represented Saxons who have won an own clothes day for all of Saxons House next week!

General Election

On Thursday 4 July we are holding our own Leaders' Debate for Years 8, 9, 10 and the Lower Sixth. Lower Sixth Politics students and additional Lower Sixth students will represent five parties and deliver speeches. The event will be staged with a Moderator, security guards, protesters and then all students will vote in polling stations located around the school. There will be a count and then the result will be announced.

Early in the election campaign, Miss Handford wrote to all local candidates to invite them to school and took the opportunity to share the partnership and outreach work we do as a school as well as the impact we have within the local economy.