Carol Service
We welcomed the KC community to a wonderful Carol Service last night for a joyously festive occasion filled with beautiful music and readings.
Christmas Lunch
Mr Hall and his fantastic Catering Team laid on the tastiest Christmas lunch on Wednesday for the whole school. Turkey and all the trimmings along with crackers and chocolates were on the menu!
Gingerbread House Competition
Pupils across the whole school took part decorating a gingerbread house, a competition organised by our amazing catering team at Lexington Independents. There were fabulous entries with many sweets consumed in the process! Well done to Year 9 Crompton and the team consisting of Iona, Ava, Katie and Elodie.
Christmas Cookies and Cake Sale
Festivities continued on the last day of term with the annual Christmas quiz and karaoke competition! After some "interesting" vocal performances from Celts singing Kelly Clarkson's "Underneath the Tree", Saxons with Mariah's "All I want for Christmas is You" and Danes with Wham's "Last Christmas", Miss Handford and Mrs Payne added up the scores and declared the winners to be Celts! Well done Celts!
Boarders' Community Lunch
On Sunday, KC boarders hosted the annual Christmas Community Lunch, welcoming visitors from the local community, including several of our Old Girls and their families. It was a fabulous Christmas meal with all the trimmings including crackers, games, quizzes, hats and gifts, rounded off with carol singing led by the boarders. We loved sharing our celebrations with the local community. One of our guests commented:
I’m writing to thank you and the staff and students of Kent College for inviting the members of the Old Church congregation to such an excellent Christmas lunch. Everyone that I’ve spoken to thoroughly enjoyed the occasion. We are very grateful for your warm and generous hospitality. The food was delicious and plentiful. The games and quizzes were very entertaining. It was very good to have the chance to chat to the students and to hear about their experience of Kent College, and their own backgrounds. There was wonderful attention to detail, with the Christmas headbands and Christmas crackers; and the parting gifts were really thoughtful. All in all, an excellent and most enjoyable occasion. Please pass on our thanks from the Old Church congregation to all those who worked so hard to make the lunch such a success. - Rev. Richard Worssam
Boarders' Christmas Activities
To wrap up a jam-packed term of fantastic activities, boarders have enjoyed some brilliant Christmas activities this week. These have included chocolate-making at Temper Temper in Tunbridge Wells, where they decorated chocolate Santas, lollipops, florentines, truffles (and took all their goodies away with them!) They also enjoyed a trip to Bedgebury to the see fantastic light shows under the trees, complete with toasting marshmallows and drinking copious amounts of hot chocolate with cream. Secret Santa in the boarding houses and karaoke in the Organ Room were a perfect way to round off a busy and happy term!
Year 7 History Trip
Year 7 had an exciting time at the Tower of London on Monday. They saw the Crown Jewels, learnt about the Norman use of the White Tower and saw carvings made by prisoners at the Tower. A few students even got locked up!
Year 7 French
Miss Panconi's French Year 7 classes have studied French culture and made hair accessories and displays featuring research posters, crosswords, a model of the Eiffel Tower, bread and pastries and a lot of French rosettes.
Year 8 German Christmas
Year 8 German pupils have been investigating the traditions surrounding Sankt Nikolaus. Sankt Nicholas was a fourth-century bishop and is said to have performed several miracles. His feast day is on the 6th December, which is called Nikolaustag in Germany and Austria (Samichlaus Tag in Switzerland). On this day, many children receive small presents in shoes or boots that they leave out on the night of 5 December. Naughty children will find that they have sticks, stones or lumps of coal as they have been visited by Knecht Ruprecht, the most common companion of Sankt Nikolaus.
Year 8 made their own shoes and were pleased to discover they were all filled with sweets! We wish you all a Frohe Weihnachten!
Year 7 Drama Performances
This week Year 7 students presented their drama and dance performances to their year group. It was a brilliant success.
This term Year 7 explored WW1 as their scheme of work and more specifically the Battle of Passchendaele. They have read diary entries and conducted research into the harsh conditions of the battle which has culminated in groups working towards a piece of theatre/dance to practically explore the emotional impact of war.
They have succeeded in developing and refining their performance skills. Stores have included physical theatre, still images, choral movement and choral speaking.
The year group should be extremely proud of themselves for performing such poignant, moving and captivating performances.
Drama Scholars Theatre Trip
Drama Scholars were treated to a fantastic performance of Hansel and Gretel at the Globe Theatre this week.
Year 11 Escape Room
Year 11 Computer Science students went on a trip to the Escape Room in Paddock Wood this week.
Agent 201 at TimeQuest was a real brain teaser for them all, full of very challenging but fun puzzles which they often managed to over complicate! They forgot the golden rule of keeping things simple but we were able to use their knowledge of binary, binary patterns and logical thinking skills to solve them eventually. A great way to end the term and they can't wait to try another room - it was great, great fun!
Portraiture and Photography Exhibition
Lower Sixth Art and Photography pupils showcased this term's work in a fabulous exhibition this week. From album covers, to photographic portraits, sketches, ceramics and paintings. A talented bunch.
Netball
Interhouse Tournament
All pupils in Year 7, 8 and 9 competed in the Interhouse netball competitions this week. It was highly competitive and enjoyable with lots of skills on show. The combined Year 7 and 8 scores and results were as follows: in 3rd place - Saxons, in 2nd place Celts and the winners - Danes! The results of Year 9 will be combined with Year 10 next term!
Year 8 Bowling Trip
The Year 8 netball squads had an end of season treat as they visited Hollywood bowl in their sport and well-being session on Monday. It was clear that not everyone’s bowling skills were as good as their netball skills!
Gymnastics News
Our Year 7 gymnasts Jessica and Chloe competed in the Intermediate Kent Championships on Sunday. This was hosted in Canterbury. It was their first competition for the gymnastics academy. Well done girls. We are proud of you both.
Opera Success
One of our Music scholars, Keira, has earned a place in a professional opera with performances at Garsington, July 2024. She said, 'I recently auditioned for the children's chorus in the opera "A Midsummer Night Dream" for Garsington Opera and I got the part! I'm so excited to be part of such an amazing opera and I can't wait to start rehearsals'. Well done Keira, what an amazing achievement!
Ms Bruce at the ENO
Last Saturday, Ms Bruce sang for English National Opera in a recording of a modern opera by Havergal Brian, called, ‘Agamemnon’. The music is incredibly complex but it was wonderful to sing with such fantastic musicians and with such a huge orchestra!
HALO Lectures Spring Term 2024
An exciting array of talks await pupils in the Spring Term. Scholars and Exhibition pupils are expected to attend the lectures, but all are welcome to attend.
The Wellbeing Hub
Please find below the content line up for the Wellbeing Hub for the Spring Term 2024.