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KAR Weekly Newsletter 26/11/21

This week's message from Principal, Mrs Williams.

We are a month away from Christmas day and plans are afoot in school to ensure we have some celebrations and get our party mojo back.

We have our Winter Fayre and Performing Arts recital on the 8th of December. Chartwells tell me that they are planning a week of Christmas food treats, as we cannot sit together in a room to eat (not quite out of the Covid wood yet, I am afraid), and the senior students have plans for a Christmas jumper day for charity. I will let you know the details shortly.

On the last day we will be finishing school earlier than usual. We have informed the bus companies and timings are as follows:

Period 1 - normal lessons

Period 2 - normal lessons

Period 3 - Celebration Assembly

Back to tutor

Years 7 and 8 leave at 12.15pm

Years 9 and 10 leave at 12.20pm 

 

Student Progress Evenings 

We have had a very successful Year 11 Student Progress Evening recently and Year 7 Student Progress Evening will be this Wednesday. We have moved this meeting to online because of the increase in Covid cases in that specific year group.

We are also aware that as the school grows, appointment availability will become harder, as the number of students outweighs teacher availability. I just wanted to touch base with you and let you know that over the coming months we are reviewing how we run Student Progress Evenings as the school grows. We will be working hard to ensure that parents and carers have regular and informative updates as to their son or daughter’s progress at King’s. 

 

Counselling Service

I am delighted to say that we have connected with a counselling service who will be available to our students in school. We are offering the space and time for this service and with specific students, some subsidy. Unfortunately, we cannot fund the service itself but know that many parents and carers will appreciate the offer of a counsellor in school. 

The details of the counsellor are on our website and we would ask that you contact them directly if you would like to access counselling for your son or daughter. Our pastoral team will be happy to discuss this with you if you have any questions.

You can find the information for Lilac Sky Counselling Service on our Wellbeing page on the school's website at this LINK!

 

Eco hub news

We have been lucky enough to have been given a large number of trees by the Woodland Trust and The Tree Council.  These include a variety of native species for the hedgerow including hazel, dog roses and hawthorn. We are planting a small orchard with apple trees and crab apples to promote pollinators onto the site. The Eco Reps have been busy planting all these wonderful trees for the school to enjoy for many years to come.

The KAR Eco Reps meet a few Mondays every term and everyone is very welcome- check out the school Eco website for more information:

https://sites.google.com/kingsacademies.uk/ringmereco/home 

 

Free School Meal vouchers for October half term school holidays 2021 

Free School Meal vouchers for the October half term holiday do have an expiry date of next Tuesday 30th November 2021.  We would like to remind parents/carers to use them before this date please.  Thank you, Debbie Duckworth, Business Services Manager

 

East Sussex County Council Holiday Activity and Food (HAF) Programme

HAF programme signposts vulnerable families to local activity provision.  The programme initially targets those in receipt of benefit-related free school meals (FSM), but they have recently been advised by the DfE that providers can now offer remaining places to other eligible young people who fit into one (or more) of the priority groups listed below. 

Priority groups

Referred to Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services

Disabled – Have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) Have special educational needs or disability (SEND) or are on the disability register

Young Carers (look after someone at home)

Have a disabled sibling

Referred to the School Mental Health Teams

Electively home educated

Gypsy, Roma & Traveller

Supported by “Family Focus”/”Troubled Families” services provided by the council

Children in Need (CiN), Children on a Child Protection Plan (CP) and Looked After Children (LAC)

Live in areas of high deprivation

Please see attached poster at the bottom of the page.  The poster directs you to the East Sussex County Council HAF website where you can see what’s on offer in your local area and how to contact providers direct to book places.  

Please view the following celebratory video which was created to showcase the summer programme, highlighting the positive impact on the children who took part - the HAF programme has already been hugely beneficial for thousands of children in East Sussex, especially for those who need it the most.

If you have any questions or would like to know more please contact the HAF team directly – HAF@eastsussex.gov.uk 

 

Ringmer Pool

From Ringmer Parish Council - Members of the Parish Council are putting together a more formal group ie: Ringmer Community Pool, to attempt to get the Pool repaired and opened for the long-term benefit of the community. It's a long journey that may come to nothing, but they want to try. 

If you are interested, the first step is to please email your name, address, and contact details to ringmercommunitypool@gmail.com so they can count you in as a member. 

This will help them firstly to register the Pool as an Asset of Community Value which, if successful, will give them a time to build a strong business case.  NB they need at least 21 members! So please don't be shy.

 

Safeguarding Focus

Police Community Support Officer drop in session

Please see attached flyer below.  Sussex Police are running a Police Community Support Officer drop in session on Saturday 4th December in the Ringmer precinct between 10 -12 am.  The event will be a good opportunity for the parents to highlight any issues.  PC Haffenden will be also in attendance who will be able to address any concerns about speeding in Ringmer and the actions that are being taken.

 

Parenting Support – “Open for Parents”

Please find attached a new guide which outlines all the programmes East Sussex County Council,  ‘Open for Parents’ have available to support parents and carers all ready for the new year and whatever it may bring!  The attached guide (below) contains all their course information, dates and how to book. Just using a QR code reader or camera on a phone will take you directly to the booking forms.

‘Open for Parents’, can offer help and support directly to the parents, free of charge, as part of East Sussex’s Early Help 0-19 Services provision. They provide a variety of online parenting courses, each with specific tips to help you deal with the most common behaviour problems.

This service is all run online, so parents and carers can join in from the comfort of their own homes. All you need is a laptop, tablet or phone and Internet access.

 

Finally...

Christmas Craft Fayre - December 8

We are getting very excited about our Christmas Craft Fayre, we now have only 2 more stalls available and have internationally renowned artist Su Blackwell attending with lots of her amazing work including her new book 'Into the Dark Woods'!

 

Kind regards

 

Sian Williams

Principal