Message from the Head Teacher

Hello everyone,

We are back at school after a well earned break. I hope

you will find lots of interesting features in this February

edition of the newsletter. You may also have seen our

increased profile in the local press as we try and promote

all the positive aspects of KSSC. This half term we are

going to focus on making sure that learning takes priority

and to support this I sent a letter to parents and carers

explaining our expectations about the basics such as mo-

bile phone use, uniform, punctuality and behaviour. If you

did not receive a letter you can view this on the web site

at www.kingsbury.bham.sch.uk under the parents’ drop

down menu. I hope that you are able to support our drive

to make learning the most important aspect of school life

and help reduce the time we spend on dealing with other

issues.

There are a number of important activities happening

over the next few weeks. This week, year 9 will be select-

ing their option courses for next year; we have maths and

science GCSEs for year 11 at the beginning of March and

an INSET day on Wednesday 7th March. A whole school

Enrichment Day based on the Olympics takes place on

Tuesday 13th March. Year 11 will have their final year

group photograph on Wednesday 16th March and we will

be organising activities for Sport Relief on Friday 23rd

March. Two items that we were unable to include in this

newsletter are the extra-curricular timetable for this half

term and the new school menus from Chartwells. Both of

these can be found on our web site. Here’s looking for-

ward to a good half term.

With best wishes,

Ms S Coulton, Headteacher

NEWSLETTER

Issue 5 February 2012

Dates for your diary

Wednesday 7th March Training day (no students)

Tuesday 13th March Enrichment Day (all students)

Wednesday 14th March Year 11 photographs

Friday 23rd March Sport Relief

Friday 30th March Easter Holidays

Monday 16th April Students return

Kingsbury School and Sports College, Kingsbury Road, Erdington, Birmingham, B24 8RE Phone: 0121 373 1080 Fax: 0121 306 4878

Web: www.kingsbury.bham.sch.uk Email: enquiry@kingsbury.bham.sch.uk

Attendance Matters!

Attendance overall is currently 94.09%.

Please may we remind all parents that if your child is absent from school for whatever reason, you must inform the school by 9.15am at the latest, on each day they are absent.

A number of parents are not informing school of their child’s absence. This results in staff spending time trying to contact parents to let them know their child has not arrived and to find out the reason for their absence. This is also important for the child’s safety. It is, therefore, essential we have up to date contact details for all parents and carers in case of emergency. If your contact details have changed, particularly your mobile number, please inform the school straight away.

T Clarke, Attendance Officer.

This newsletter is also available online at www.kingsbury.bham.sch.uk. If you would like to receive newsletters by email please email: enquiry@kingsbury.bham.sch.uk with ‘Newsletter’ in the subject header.

@KingsburySSC

Mrs Rose Alexander

It is with sadness that I have to inform you that one of our staff, Mrs Rose Alexander, passed away on Monday 23rd January after a long battle with cancer. Mrs Alexander was a teaching assistant at

KSSC, most recently in the Humanities faculty. Since join-ing the school in September 2004, she supported many of our students in and out of lessons; a job that she did with great enthusiasm, skill and kindness. Mrs Alexander was a co-tutor in year 7, forming positive

working relationships with the form tutor and the form

group. She was a true team player in both the year 7 team

and in the faculty and was well liked by staff and

students. Mrs Alexander had a generous nature and

wanted to be involved in life beyond the classroom. She

helped out at events like Black History and brought in

Caribbean food for us to enjoy.

Mrs Alexander will be greatly missed and we wish to offer

our condolences to her family. School will be organising a

memorial event for her this half term. A collection is

being made in aid of the John Taylor Hospice and any

contributions would be gratefully received.

S Coulton, Headteacher

Together we can

Art students of the month

This award is made to students whom the Art Department feel have made exceptional progress, excelled in their com-mitment to their studies and attitude to the work that is set. This month’s awards are for fantastic work on surrealism. Congratulations to the following students, your 100 Vivo’s and certificates are on their way to you: KS3: Dayle Demaret-Smith, Jayne Beale KS4: Fadhila Ismail A Daniel, Curriculum Leader, Art

FOCUS ON ENJOYING AND ACHIEVING

Westminster visit

Several students from Kingsbury School & Sports College and our neighbour-ing Queensbury School, paid a visit to Parliament recently. The House of Commons, House of Lords and Westminster Hall were some of the places we enjoyed, and we had a meeting with our MP Jack Dromey. Simbarashe gave a tremendous replica Barack Obama speech, and Tinu tried out the Queen’s royal wave. This prestigious trip gave an insight into the role of our leaders, and without doubt our Student Council benefited from this trip. Witnessing a debate on the reform of the Welfare Bill in the House of Com-mons, students were intrigued by the stimulating debate. Unfortunately we narrowly missed the Prime Minister’s Question Time.

Overall it was enjoyable and most certainly eventful, and the Student Lead-ership team and the rest of the students who attended would like to give their thanks to all the teachers who organ-ised the trip. C Murrain, Student Leadership Team

Jayne Beale Fadhila Ismail Dayle Demaret-Smith

Over 40 KSSC students across Key Stage 3,

who entered a competition run by Young

Writers, have had their stories selected for

publication. The challenge was to write an

engaging, entertaining story, in only 50

words. Congratulations to them all—too

many to print here but letters are on their

way home, and the stories will be published

in May.

M Atherton, Teacher of English

KSSC and Queensbury students with Jack

Dromey MP at the Houses of Parliament.

Spelling Bee

Year 5 children from 7 of

our local primary schools

took part recently in the

first ever KSSC Spelling Bee in our

school hall. The competition was fought

hard over two rounds, giving us an indi-

vidual winner from Marsh Hill and the

team winners Birches Green Junior,

coached by Karen Frost. Students and

staff gave up breaks for the last four weeks learning a range of

words. They were enthusiastic and very competitive and we hope this

was the first of many competitions.

J Bunn, Achievement Leader Year 7

Birches Green Junior Team

Together we can

Geographers Go Green at Moor Hall

Year 10 Geography GCSE students have been examining sustainability and recently

visited Moor Hall Hotel and Spa. Students were given the task of producing a mar-

keting campaign for the hotel to raise awareness of existing Green initiatives and to

generate ideas for new ones. The General Manager, Tony Hill, will judge the ideas

to decide which group have the come up with the most innovative and creative

campaigns.

Students also looked at the many different jobs in the hotel and had a talk from Mr Hill about employability skills. At

KSSC, we aim to make the curriculum more relevant to our students and see work-related learning as a valuable tool to

engage and inspire learners. Mr Hill was full of praise for the students, describing them as “A well presented group of

pupils who were keen to learn more about the business world and our Green initiatives. I look forward to visiting the

school to judge the project in a few weeks time.” E Thom, Assistant Headteacher for Learning / Geography Teacher

FOCUS ON HUMANITIES FACULTY

Languages Four Year 10 students recently visited St Barnabas CE Primary School to take part in their French Day. Using their

language skills, Kiyane, James, Raha and Rafe helped Year 3 and 4 pupils to play games and carry out a treasure hunt

around the school. The students really enjoyed their time with the younger pupils and got a lot from it. We would like

to thank St Barnabas for inviting us. S Yap, Teacher of Languages

Welcome to the Humanities Faculty. We are a large faculty with 18 members of staff, covering four subjects -

Geography, History, RE and Languages (French or Spanish). Students cover a wide variety of topics and are all encour-

aged to develop their learning skills across the range of subjects; thinking, decision making, creativity, presentation

skills, teamwork and independence are all promoted. We believe that these skills will not only help students in other

areas of school but will also prepare them for life after school. C Chapman, Faculty Leader, Humanities

History goes to court

In December, Year 11 History students visited a workshop at North Birmingham Academy. The students were involved

in a mock court case based on public health in the Middle Ages. They had a great day and got lots of useful tips in

answering source based questions. They particularly enjoyed questioning and cross-examining witnesses dressed in

medieval costume! M Hussain, Curriculum Leader, History.

Our debating team recently took part in the Urban League at Lordswood Boys’ school. The squad

showed incredible teamwork and debated with tremendous passion, winning the first debate on the

topic of legalising euthanasia but sadly losing to last year’s champions in the second round. However,

due to points accumulated we are currently the top Debate Mate school in Birmingham and 12th out

of 108 nationally! Well done to all the team and good luck for the next round in March.

S Luscombe, Teacher of History

Humanities get creative

We try to make learning interesting and

fun, employing a wide variety of teaching

strategies and links to other subjects where

possible. Recently, students have been cre-

ating new desert creatures to demonstrate

adaptability in Geography, building medieval castles in History, and looking at town planning and fashion design in Lan-

guages. Photos of some of the students’ work are featured here. C Chapman, Faculty Leader, Humanities

Together we can

FOCUS ON COMMUNITY

KSSC supports healthy active lifestyles. February 26—March 3rd is National Eating Disorders Awareness Week. Eating disorders are serious, life-threatening illnesses - not choices. It is important to recognise the pressures, attitudes and behaviours that shape the disorder. For more information go to www.nationaleatingdisorders.org So, what can young people do to avoid the risks?

Maintain a healthy balance and healthy outlook on life Ensure you are able to balance work/school and personal life. It is essential to have a healthy diet with occasional treats. Exercise regularly with an appropriate amount of rest and relaxation. Speak to someone if you are concerned for yourself or about any of your friends At KSSC, our healthy and tasty school meals, and the varied range of extra curricular activities on offer, help students to maintain a healthy active lifestyle. The latest Extra Curricular Timetable is on the school website under Students. S Walters, Curriculum Leader, PE

Eco Art If you have any unwanted items such as artifacts, magazines, card, musical instruments, trinkets, costume jewellery, large pieces of fabric, old cameras, puppets, or anything else, please consider the Art Department

before heading to the tip! Please contact Mr Daniel at the school if you can help. A Daniel, Curriculum Leader, Art.

Gardening Club

Thank you to Acorn Flooring for their kind donation which helped us set up our school garden. Now to raise money for seeds and equipment, we are selling ‘Roundabouts of Erdington’ Calendars for £3 each. We are also inviting local companies to sponsor raised beds, which will have plaques with the sponsor’s name. If you are interested in support-ing the garden, through volunteering, or donations of money or equipment, any help would be really appreciated. For more information please contact Mr Davies at the school. T Davies, Learning Zone Manager

School Meals

Eating a balanced meal at school is important for health and it has a significant impact on concentration levels and per-formance. Some students are buying food outside school instead of using the money as parents intended, to top up their dinner cards. This food is not always a healthy option! Our school meals are not only healthy but varied and tasty; there is a well stocked fruit section, a salad bar and themed days. Menus are available on the school website under Parents section. Ways in which parents can ensure their child eats a healthy school meal are:

Ensuring your child has a dinner card. For £2 a new card can be ordered and the student will have a temporary one in the meantime.

Topping up your children’s dinner cards by cheque rather than cash ensures they have to spend it on school meals. Please make cheques payable to Chartwells and send into school with your child.

If you are still concerned or would like to discuss the eating habits of your child please ring the Finance Department at school at any time. J Armitage, Finance Adminstrator

Garden Club members Jason and Tyrell creating raised beds

KSSC are again supporting Sport Relief and helping raise money to transform lives at home and abroad. Our activities will include a non uniform day on 23rd March, wristbands for sale and much more! Meanwhile, have you signed up for the Birmingham Sport Relief Mile on 25th March? See www.sportrelief.com for details.

We’re taking part in Sainsbury’s Active Kids 2012 and we want to collect as many vouchers as possible, to buy equipment for our students to use.

You can collect Active Kids vouchers from 15 February to 10 April 2012 when you visit Sains-bury’s stores, petrol stations or shop online. Please send vouchers to school with your child or hand in at reception.

Your efforts to support our fundraising activities are really appreciated and make a big difference. S Jakszta, Senior Director Every Child Matters