Dylan Jones in Year 12 has won a scholarship with ISSOS, one of the UK’s most prestigious international summer schools. In June, Dylan will fly north to the historic university town of St Andrews to join a three week summer school, specialising in creative writing and drama. Currently studying English, Drama and History, Dylan is relishing the opportunity to join students from over 70 nationalities on an enriching programme of creative learning, cultural trips and activities.  He secured the scholarship after submitting an essay describing how the summer school could expand his horizons and help him achieve his ambitions.

As Dylan wrote in his submission essay: Oscar Wilde once said, “All of us are in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars.” I like to think of myself as a person who is looking at the stars but sometimes it can feel difficult to understand how I might get there! Creative writing has always been a passion of mine...ISSOS can give me a lot of new experiences and knowledge so I can take a big step into my future."

Patrik Miles - Reading Millionaire
Abdi Al Sakkaf - Reading Millionaire
Edie Church - Reading Millionaire

Performance at Bristol Cathedral:  

Year 11s:

William Want, Stephanie Thomasset

Year 7s:

Erin Barnett, Alice Brochot-Sharpe
Eleanor Baker, Sayen Cid-Purslow,
Joseph Crawford, Sophie de Wet
Jemima Douglas, Emily Earle
Ruby Forder, Sophia Harper
Sophie Hicks, Toula Hudson
Victoria Karczewska, Hannah Lange
Abi Lebo, Gabriella Marcovitch
Sienna Mcleary, Jessica Porter
Hope Roberts, Tannaz Saljughi
Keeley Semple, Abigail Smallwood
Leah Wardingley, Sam Wright

 

North Somerset Dance Festival:

All Year 9s:

Issy Prime, Molly Green
India Sydenham, Isabelle Oliver
Daisy Money, Lily Morris
Ruby Aczel, Hetty Cleaver
Isobel Taylor, Maya Matthews
Evie Dexter

Thanks to all the teachers, students and parents that supported Pride Week.

Our cake, sweets and doughnut sales plus Wear Any Shoes dayraised over £600 for AKT (formerly the Albert Kennedy Trust) who take care of LGBTQ+ young adults that are homeless or at risk in their home.

We also had an amazing guest speaker, Glyn Fussell (pictured above) He inspired all the students at the talk, especially the LGBTQ+ students, to be proud of who they are and accept support from their allies

Glyn said he was very impressed with the school and how supportive the staff are, but especially the students, he could feel the love in the lecture theatre!

St Kaths Team Pride
 

As part of our wide-reaching improvement we have been reflecting on the findings from a school review commissioned last term:

Expectations - we must consider what our expectations are for the pupils, what your expectations are for your child/children and what are the pupils’ expectations for themselves? This will be a key theme in Term 5 and beyond.   We must all rise to this challenge so we can enjoy the success this will deliver. Only by working together will this work.
Challenge - the review asked us to focus on whether the level of challenge during lessons is sufficient.  It's important our pupils are regularly in a ‘stretch’ zone rather than a ‘comfort’ zone, so they can extend their knowledge and understanding in each and every lesson.  We are now building this focus into our staff training.
Homework - the review highlighted the relatively low number of hours pupils spend on homework.  We are looking at the quality and time spent on homework so pupils continue their learning outside the classroom and at home.  From Term 5 there will be a location in school for completing homework, initially at lunchtime. This will be extended to Period 0 (8:10-8:40) and Period 6 (15:30-16:30) towards the end of the term. 

It’s been a successful term for us and the sixth form leadership team as a whole. We had our second whole school council meeting where we discussed whole school issues fed down to us from SLT as well student issues brought up in house meetings. We’ve booked the Avon Gorge Hotel for the sixth form prom and also looking at improving the sixth form block by refurbishing the displays and notice boards.

Next term, we’ll be supporting next year’s Head Students and House Leaders to help them settle into their respective roles. We also want to improve communication between students, teachers and the school council so everyone’s voices are heard in our school community.

Lewis Mason and Eloise Wheeler

I have been hosting course consultation meetings with prospective sixth form students.   

These are essential meetings to discuss the students' subject choices and review them honestly to ensure students are studying the topics they want and need to follow their chosen path after sixth form.

There are a small number of course consultation courses outstanding.  I'll follow these up with the students concerned early next term.

Following on from the course consultation meetings already completed sixth form offer letters have now been have now been sent to the vast majority students.

Thank you to everyone who has confirmed their place already - don't forget the Step into Sixth Form Day on 24 June 2019.

In the meantime if any students planning to join sixth from in September have any questions or want to amend their course choices please email me as soon as possible on colebournes@skdrive.org

Mr Colebourne, Head of Sixth Form

We finished Term 4 with an incredible 337 pupils achieving 100% attendance with a further 225 pupils achieving 97-99% attendance.  43% of our pupils have improved their attendance during Term 4  and their efforts have been recognised with attendance postcards and praise points. Well done to all our pupils for being so conscious of their attendance, keep up that positive attitude in Term 5!

In order to help parent/carers support their children to reach our target attendance of 97% we have produced an Attendance Guide to provide key information around our attendance expectations.

Attendance top tips:

• Please communicate your child’s absence by 7.30am on each day of absence by calling 01275 373737 - Option 1 for Attendance.
• Try to avoid routine medical/dental appointments in school hours - your child MUST return to school after appointments
• If you are unsure whether to send your child into school if they are ill please speak to one of us for advice.
• If your child is upset about an incident please bring them to school the next morning to meet with a member of staff.
• We can only agree absence for holidays in term time for ‘Exceptional Circumstances’

Ms Gardiner organises a regular programme of careers events designed to encourage and inspire our students to think about their own future.

This term Jim Packyn from Aardman Animations spoke to Year 8 about the variety of jobs involved in animation production. A group of students spent the day at Avon and Somerset Police headquarters in Portishead visiting the communication building where 999 and 101 calls are processed and the Blackrock Quarry firearms training centre.

Plus over 20 companies including BT, the NHS, Army, RAF, Spec Savers, Vale Vets, Bristol City Football Academy, Bristol University, Thatchers, Lush and The Style Room came along to our Careers Fair to talk to Year 9, 12 and 13 students about careers options and what their future could look like.