Today I am at a conference in Birmingham for The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL). The president of ASCL - the first black female president - has urged us as leaders to speak out to you. To thank you first for your commitment to education as parents and carers, but to also reach out and ask, not compel you to write to your MP, repeating our message that education and welfare is woefully underfunded. We are in crisis in terms of recruiting and retaining high quality professionals. This year the profession was only able to recruit 17% of the government target of physics teachers. No, that is not a misprint, 17%.  KAR itself has been unable to recruit a computer science teacher since September. (Thank goodness for Mr Burchett’s skills). 

For the first time in 17 years the Secretary of State for Education has declined to attend our conference to either speak or listen to us about what is needed in education. We have heard today that the government plans to scrap many BTECs - the only qualification which acknowledges that not all students are academics and that practical skills are valuable. 

So today I ask you to write to your MP for the voiceless child whose future is in danger, telling them to make bold political decisions, to fund education and the NHS, and to support educationalists so that our children HAVE a future.

 

FINAL ENRICHMENT CHOICES AND PAYMENTS!!

Apologies for the capital letters and exclamation marks, but at last we have finished our lengthy curation of Enrichment Week 2023.  Our Finance Office has added each paid option onto ParentPay and everyone in Key Stage 3 was emailed the new Enrichment Booklet and new Google Form on Friday 3rd March.  Thank you to all who have already completed this and made payments for your child/ren's choices.  Please remember that we do have some funds to financially support some students, so that everyone can access a range of different activities for the week, and we once again thank the generosity of stakeholders who have contributed to our Enrichment Fund.  

Please read the notes in the Enrichment Booklet carefully and remember that some free activities will have a maximum capacity.

 

RED NOSE DAY WHOLE SCHOOL BAKE SALE - MONDAY 13TH MARCH

Please can we encourage students to bake some sweet treats for the school bake sale on Monday 13th March, to help raise funds for Red Nose Day. Please bring them in a tin with the student’s name on ideally so that we can return the tin to the correct student. All students are encouraged to bring in coins to be able to buy some of the bakes at break/lunchtime. We look forward to seeing your creations!

 

Year 8 Careers Day

We held our first Year 8 Careers event today at KAR, and it was a resounding success. There were a vast range of careers on offer for them to choose from.

The Army put on a fantastic show for the students with problem-solving activities, Brighton University offered exciting experimental task to demonstrate bio medicine, BodySculpt had the students designing personal training sessions and trying them out themselves, Magenta Associates did some trial writing sessions for journalism and that's just a snippet of the fantastic events that were on offer. 

KAR would like to take this opportunity to thank all the fantastic companies that offered their time to support our students in exploring possible career paths today. The students did the school proud with their positive attitudes and engagement throughout the event.

As a school, we would like to thank Mrs White for the enormous effort that she put in to make today a valuable experience for the students, and to any other staff involved in the planning or running of the day.

                      

 

Year 10 Work Experience

Over the next few weeks we will be advising students on their WEx placements.  Our WEx coordinator from Aspire has been working hard to place students at their first choices, but inevitably some students will be linked with a second or third choice.  There is still time to arrange your own placement and students must come and see Ms Hunnisett if this will be the case. 

Thank you to all parents who have made the payments for the external service provided by Aspire.  If you do have an outstanding instalment, please make the payment as soon as possible. 

 

Year 9/10 Careers Trip

On Wednesday, Mr Wood, Ms Malik & Mr Duckworth took some students down to the Towner Art Gallery in Eastbourne for the ESCC  ‘I Can’ careers and further education event. They all took a lot away  from it... including freebies!  

  

                           
 

Music Department - Band Project Opportunity

I am letting you know about an opportunity to do a one-day band workshop in Lewes on Saturday 25th March. This is not in connection with school and is run by Create Music. The courses are run by brilliant local professionals and I can recommend them highly.

Band Project Day 25th March

https://createmusic.org.uk/for-children-and-young-people/short-courses/lewes-rock-pop-workshops/

Please contact me by email if you can't find answers to your questions on the Create Music website! Thank you.  Ms F. Urquhart, Subject Leader for Music

 

ECO News

The Eco Reps, Rachel Paget from Ouse & Adur Rivers Trust, and a parent helper all worked hard on Monday to plant native trees and hedgerows in our Eco Hub garden.  Sadly, we had lost some due to the very hot weather and hose pipe bans over the summer last year, so we are hoping these will fill in the gaps and soon provide cover and a habitat for wildlife.  Well done to the Eco Reps for all their hard work and thank you to Rachel Paget for the trees and her help and our parent helper as well.

 

                     

 

                   

 

Vaccinations in school
We vaccinated nearly 200 Year 8 & 9 students with HPV dose 1 or 2 this morning and have the Year 9 Tetanus/Diptheria/Polio & Meningitis vaccinations coming up on 21st April.

Thank you to everyone who made this possible, so many students commented on how lovely the team was who came in.

 

Kind regards,

Sian Williams

Principal