Operation Christmas Child
On Tuesday, our Upper Sixth students began the first of three volunteering sessions for Operation Christmas Child in Tonbridge, organised by Samaritans Purse. Each year, during the festive season, this organisation aims to pack Christmas boxes for 260,000 children, many of whom may never have received a gift before.
Our students manually checked shoeboxes for safety and customs compliance, and created new shoeboxes to be sent to children in need around the world. We have been overwhelmed by the students' enthusiasm to sign up to the volunteering and they were incredible ambassadors for the school.
We are looking forward to the next session on the 26th November.
Boarders' Charity Ball
Our boarding community enjoyed one of the highlights of the academic year on Friday - the annual Boarders' Charity Ball. The theatre was transformed into a fabulous venue and our students, dressed in their finest, enjoyed a three course meal, mocktails, disco and a special Instagram room to capture the fun! As well as being a fantastic evening, the ball raised much-needed funds for Alzheimer's Society - it was a very special occasion all round!
There are a lot of exciting activities and trips planned for the countdown to Christmas including ice skating, the Community Celebration Lunch and seeing the Tonbridge Castle illuminations.
Miss Handford - GSA Award Winner
On Tuesday, the Girls School Association (GSA), of which Kent College is a member, announced that Miss Handford, is this year’s recipient of their prestigious Sheila Cooper Award!
The GSA said:
This prestigious honour celebrates remarkable contributions within a member’s first two years, and Miss Handford exemplifies this through her tireless dedication to empowering young women and her active involvement across GSA life. A stalwart of her region, she has contributed to the Boarding Committee, hosted a round table at Conference, regularly attends our Head to Head, and was able to join us for the Summer Briefing. She has also served as a mentor to a new GSA member, further demonstrating her commitment to supporting and inspiring others. Beyond GSA, her work to end sexism in schools highlights her passion for creating lasting change.
Congratulations to Miss Handford!
Upper Sixth Trip to Keats House
Upper Sixth English students went on a trip to Keats House in London this week. The aim was to learn about the life of John Keats in order to help contextualise his poetry.
In addition, the Keats expert at the museum provides an hour-long lecture running through one of the most challenging poems on the A Level specification, helping students to understand and appreciate all of the different allusions and images in the poem and how these relate to Keats' life.
HALO Lecture
Mrs Hayes delivered a lecture entitled "thou shalt commit adultery" to AIMS students this week, in which she spoke about errors in texts and translations.
The title of the lecture derives from a typo in the so-called Wicked Bible. She encouraged students to think about how messages are rendered, particularly when you are not reading a text in its original format, as the translator will have made choices around the words, messages and imagery used. Using different translations can also help to get us closer to what the original text meant. Mrs Hayes also referred to the Latin text Pro Milone, a defence speech by Cicero, Milo. When Cicero sent him the third copy of his speech, the one he edited after he had spoken for him in the courts, Milo replied to say that if Cicero had spoken for him the way he had set out in the letter, he would not be in exile. In this way, Mrs Hayes demonstrated the importance of understanding the origin of the text and also helped students to understand why some texts survived but others did not. We thank Mrs Hayes for such an insightful lecture.
We thought it was very interesting as the lecture told us about topoics we wouldn't have found out by ourselves. Annabelle, Shona and Josie, Year 7
As someone who does not study any ancient subjects, we found this lecture very interesting and could see how it links to modern situations. Sienna and Rose, Lower Sixth
It was fascinating to see the relevance of ancient texts in modern day life and how different translations can change the meaning of texts. Verity and Megan, Upper Sixth
It was so interesting to learn about how one word can change the whole text. Juliet and Chloe, Year 7
It was really interesting and entertaining. Caitlin & Hettie, Year 8
Diana Award
Year 10 students took part in a Diana Award Activity on Monday, designing "Positivity Tees" to be submitted to the Diana Award Competition.
The objectives were to design tshirts in order to:
- Create examples of positive messages and compliments
- Explore the impact that our words have on ourselves and others
- Discover how to empower and educate others about anti-bullying work
Afterwards the group discussed how the activity went. It was lovely to see Year 10 embrace the task and we look forward to hearing the results of the competition in due course.
Year 7 Tutor Groups
Last week’s tutor theme was Memory, so 7-Brunyate designed and crafted various fun games to test people’s memory. This week we invited the 7-James Tutor group to come and play our games, and lots of fun was had all round. Even Mr Ayling and Mrs Connolly tested their memory! Mrs Connolly particularly enjoyed Sage and Chloe’s pattern recall game.
Drama Trip to The Mousetrap
Years 10 and 11 Drama students enjoyed a trip to see The Mousetrap this week at St Martin's Lane Theatre. As the longest running theatre production in the world, this classic play by Agatha Christie, is a murder mystery with lots of twists and turns along the way. The audience are sworn to secrecy about "who dunnit" so as not to spoil the surprise for future theatre-goers and our students were happy to keep the secret too.
School Blazer Sale
Schoolblazer will be running a flash sale from Monday 25th – Tuesday 26th November 2024.
There will be 20% off ALL in-stock items online at schoolblazer.com during the sale period, while stocks last.