From the Head of Secondary 28.08.2021
With the Secondary exams completed last week, all students have been settling into the routine of timetabled lessons. All is going well, and in particular we have been very pleased with the way that our Year 7 students have faced the challenges of Secondary online-school life. I would like to thank parents and students for informing us when a power cut or internet problem or indeed issues with computers have interrupted attendance at lessons, even momentarily. It does help us to understand what is going on so that we can moderate our expectations accordingly.
I wrote last week about returning text books to school, and thank you if you have already done that. Mrs Colbeck is busy sorting through the piles of texts, placing them in class piles, and preparing to have them ready for collection. It would be great if we could get all of them returned over the coming week; the sooner that happens the sooner they can be redistributed.
Moving ahead, colleagues are working on getting our student leaders in role. Mrs Beresford will be our Student Council teacher-mentor this year and next week she will be initiating the process whereby students are selected. The Student Council has grown in strength over the years and this year will be continuing to focus on its role as the body through which students can express their views and opinions about school, with the goal of contributing to its development. Dr Dickinson will be working on getting our Prefect team in place, Mrs Davis the Eco-Warriors and Mr Bromley, our House Coordinator, will be inspiring students to take up House leadership roles. We saw last year that even in the absence of in-school learning, our student leaders are quite capable of rising to the challenge and using creative approaches to fulfil their roles.
Watch out for news from our student leaders in future editions of the newsletter!
Mrs Margaret Renshaw
Deputy Principal / Head of Secondary
Wellbeing
This week, we had our first Key Stage 3 assembly of the new school year. I wanted to bring the students all together to remind them that, even though they may be sat at home, perhaps feeling isolated or cut off from their friends and teachers, they are still part of the KIS community. While we are thankfully seeing tentative signs that these strange times may soon be coming to an end, we must be there to support one another through what we hope will be one of the final stages of our online journey.
For this reason, I chose to focus our first assembly on Year 9’s PSHE theme: Wellbeing. This is a word we hear a lot these days but it has, and will always be, at the heart of what we do at KIS.
Still, now, more than ever, we need to look after both our minds and our bodies so Ms. Watt and Ms Siti kindly agreed to give a short talk about both these issues to the students. While Ms Watt reminded us about the importance of maintaining our physical fitness, Ms Siti focussed on coping strategies and solutions for when we find ourselves feeling overwhelmed. All of the points that were raised in these discussions were enormously beneficial and served as an excellent reminder, to both students and staff, of how vital it is not to give into ‘lockdown lethargy’ and to make sure that we take care of ourselves and our community.
Although it may feel to many of us that other people only exist behind our laptop screens at the moment, we are in fact more united and connected than ever. We are all experiencing the same fears and frustrations. We are all missing our friends and our families. We are all patiently waiting for the day when we can go back to school, step on an airplane or even swim in the sea without worrying about infection or violating the SOPs. That day will come but, until it does, the main message that I want to impart is the importance of communication.
If you are having any problems, whether it’s a poor internet connection, feelings of loneliness or despair or anything else that falls in between, we are here to help and support you. We all understand this is a difficult time so we’d like to emphasise to students that they shouldn’t be afraid to reach out and let us know if they are struggling. If they need someone to talk to, Ms Siti is available to listen to any issues, big or small, as am I, Mrs Renshaw, teachers and form tutors. This message also applies to our parents of course, as they could be struggling with a different set of issues at this time.
Whilst we are online and even when we are back in school, let’s keep our lines of communication open and make sure that we are looking out for both ourselves and each other.
Ms Emily Colley
Head of Key Stage 3
