KINGS NORTON

HIGH TIMES

February 2009

IN THIS ISSUE

Any ideas?

Helping

St Basils

Taking on the National Challenge – maths and English This term saw the start of Kings Norton High’s major assault on improving GCSE maths and English. It began with invitations to a group of parents whose children in year 11 were on target for a grade A*- D in maths, English or both. The purpose: to seek support for our campaign to find more hours in a day! In a nutshell, the campaign is targeting a wide group – 60 out of 100 students (Club 60) – and to make their timetables more flexible in order to offer them more study time on maths and English. The programme for the target group looks like this: • a target group identified for support, with the main focus being on those students

hovering around the C/D borderline • some subjects, initially ICT, ‘fast-tracked’ by taking students off timetable in order to

complete ICT coursework – this frees up 2 extra hours for English and 2 for maths • some subjects dropped if target grades are less than F – to free up more study time

for the core subjects • mentors and extra teachers to offer extra tuition during the time freed from the

timetable – two new teachers have already been taken on and mentors will be interviewed after half term

• self-test software bought in for students to use in their freed time in order to

YEAR 11: OPERATION ‘FAILURE IS NOT

AN OPTION’ – ‘CLUB 60’

timetable – two new teachers have already been taken on and mentors will be interviewed after half term

• self-test software bought in for students to use in their freed time in order to concentrate on those aspects of English and maths which are currently giving them problems

• lunchtime extra classes for a rolling programme of small groups • compulsory after-school lessons for targeted students to concentrate on English

coursework or maths/English examination preparation • Easter school lessons – teachers giving up holiday time to come into school to teach

year 11 students • planned blocks of maths and English time for extended study, with teachers also

planning to give up a week-end to offer students a residential experience • zero tolerance of saboteurs! …our promise to you as parents is that students who

are preventing your child from learning because they are disrupting lessons and thus distracting the teacher from his or her teaching will be removed from the classroom and given silent study time in isolation from the rest of the group’

During the first week back after half term, the target group ‘Club 60’ will be given a ‘diagnosis’ of what is preventing them from reaching their GCSE goals in English and maths. Then they will be given a ‘prescription’ or a spreadsheet of all of the interventions we need to put in place for these students to ensure that they achieve their potential. If this plan is successful, we will roll it gradually through the school in the most practical way possible so that all students will have an individual achievement plan and this will be linked to prescribed home learning tasks as well as school study tasks. There is a saying, ‘You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.’ We hope you will see that we are prepared to go the extra mile for your children and that you will support us in our bid to get as many chil-dren ‘drinking’ as possible! Very best wishes Denise Burns

If you go down

to the woods

today . . .

Out and

about

As part of the enrichment programme in humanities an

opportunity has arisen for year 8 learners to visit the National Memorial Arboretum using a bursary granted by the Royal

British Legion, to reflect the contribution made by others in times of conflict.

Located in the heart of the country, the National Memorial

Arboretum comprises 150 acres of trees and memorials devoted to the concept of Remembrance. Set within the National Forest of

Staffordshire, near Lichfield, it was established in 1997. It already contains 150 memorials of national significance. Many of the

memorials reflect the contribution of the Armed Services from the First World War through to the current day. Learners will

memorials reflect the contribution of the Armed Services from the First World War through to the current day. Learners will

experience a wide variety of activities during the visit; they can explore the history of each memorial, draw and sketch, collect

data and information for more research or model making.

Children can also experience the Act of Remembrance in the Millennium Chapel which takes place every day at 11am.

The visit takes place on Thursday 26th February.

In the house, I was walking up the stairs. I knew he was behind me because I could hear footsteps, fear went through my body. Opening the door of my bedroom I ran and sat on my bed, it bounced on my bed and sat next to me. I moved to my cousin's bed and went under the blanket and crushed it all up. But the thing seemed to stay in the room. I was frozen in my cousin’s bed. All I could hear was my heart pounding in my ear. "Has he gone yet? what could I do next! “ Time seemed to be passing. I had to be brave. I moved the blanket, and there was nothing there. I put it back over my head for a few seconds and removed it, there was nothing. I thought I’d make a move.

Kayley Ames, year 7

I’d make a move. Kayley Ames, year 7

On a dark and stormy evening I was walking through the woods, the moon was staring at me as if I had done something wrong .Suddenly something hit me... I looked left, I looked right, I looked up and I looked down but nobody was there. I skimmed and scanned with my eyes up at the trees...but nothing was there...I saw a shadow at the side of me but I could not see the figure... I ran as fast as I could my heart pounding and my feet aching, but I did not know why?

Remi Graham, year 7

Horror in the woods

The communications faculty is presently in GCSE mode with extra sessions on Monday and Tuesdays for year 11 students after school and during lunchtimes. In addition we have worked hard to create revision resources, which will be going home at half term. Plus extra resources on the school VLE site. Please feel free to browse.

What’s occurring?

We would like to congratulate the following students who have achieved 100% attendance to date this academic

year.

Ashton, Jack 9G Astbury, Jed 9G

Barrington-Smith, Shelby 7K Bennett, Jodie 9I

Boucher, Bethany 7K Brookes, Alanah 9G Brookes, Richard 7K Brown, Kielo 7K

Collingwood, Lisa 10K Cornejo, Eunice 9G

Dean, Brandon- Lee 10K Donald, Taylor 11G

Franklin, Benjamin 11K Gjini, Engjell 9K

Glendinning, Hayley 8K Goulei, Stephanie 11N

Hitchman (js), Timothy 10G

100%

attendance

club

going home at half term. Plus extra resources on the school VLE site. Please feel free to browse. The French Department has continued to move forward this term and students in key stage 3 will soon find themselves sitting examinations in French, giving them qualifications towards GCSEs. The new examinations are called Asset examinations, and we have every confidence in them being a great step forward to students being able to access a variety of languages and skills. On top of this an exciting trip to Paris in France has been organized for March 2010. Students

will be able to get a taste for speaking French and enjoy the sites of Paris, including a day at Disney. I know we are all looking forward to this.

Goulei, Stephanie 11N Hitchman (js), Timothy 10G Kouzon, Jean Marc 9K McGregor, Shanice 9G

Mudikongo-Lumana, Shalom 9I Mweemba, Nathan 10N Owuodzie, Jack 10G Palmer, Najee 9I Palmer, Shanae 7N Savage, Jack 11K

Summers, Carrie 7K West, Martin 7N Wray, Andre 9G

116 students made it to school for all of the 3 days the school was open last week during the snow. Some of them travelling from

Balsal Heath, Moseley, Yardley Wood, Harborne, Hall Green and Selly Oak in addition to those living close to the school.

Well done everybody who made the effort to come to school in these

poor weather conditions.

Keep on walking . . . .

On January 30th and 31st a group of Year 11 BTEC sport students went on a hillwalking trip to the Wyre forest region. The trip was very successful however it did have a few problems along the way. The group met at school at around 7.30am ready for departure. Problem 1— minibus wouldn’t start, no petrol left. A quick ride with a caretaker to fill a can full of diesel problem sorted. Departure from school 8.30am . We arrived at the drop off location in Highley at around 9.45am and the students got their bearings and headed off. Problem 2— footpath closed across railway lines. Diversions followed. After a few fallings over in the slippy mud (Kayley Turner and Jack Savage) and the hard boys touching the electric fence (Josh Haynes and Dritain Gjini) we arrived in Bewdley at around 1.15pm. After a good rest and feed we started back towards the Wyre Forest to Coopers Mill where we were staying the night. Arrived at about 3pm and

opened up the accommodation. Turned on the water supply. Problem 3—no hot water, water coming through the ceiling and no flushing facilities. As you can imagine this didn’t go down well. However the students got on with the problems and settled in for the night, some earlier than others (Dritain having 15 hours sleep—a new KNHS record!). Students were awoken at 7am and after cleaning rooms and packing rucksacks departed at 9am. Students arrived at destination past Bewdley at around 1.30pm all exhausted but with a sense of teamwork and achievement.

A big thanks to all students who endeavoured many problems and completed all tasks set.

Mr Yeomans, Head of PE

Keep on walking . . . .

Christmas may seem like a long time ago now and for the vast majority of us the festive season is a time for celebration

we share with friends and family. The sad reality is that for the homeless in our city, Christmas (and the rest of the year) is a time of hardship when just finding somewhere safe, warm and dry to sleep and enough food to survive is an almost

impossible task.

St Basils registered charity works with young people to prevent youth homelessness by providing accommodation and

support to those in need. At the end of last term year 8 learners at Kings Norton High demonstrated their citizenship by collecting foodstuffs and

items that many of us would take for granted, but to a homeless person might be consider a ‘luxury item’ such as toiletries. Learners in year 8

donated hampers to St Basils to help the homeless young people of Birmingham. Here is a quote from a letter sent to school from Anne

Morton, Fundraising Officer for St Basils:

“Please pass on our thanks to all of your staff, pupils and their parents who have been so generous and assure them that their kindness for such a thoughtful selection of items is greatly appreciated by those now benefitting from these items. your support always means so much to us.”

Miss Buckley and I would like to add our thanks to that of Anne Morton and say well done to all the learners and form tutors in year 8. If year 8 learners, or any other year group have a particular

charity or cause you would like us to support then speak to your school council representatives, form tutor, learning mentor or head of year.

You can find out more about the work St Basils does at their website: http://www.stbasils.org.uk/

Mrs Horner and Miss Buckley

Thank you year 8!