Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope you have had a good week.

This week saw our student council meet with me to discuss ideas on how we move the school forward. I have been impressed by their enthusiasm and well thought out ideas in all areas, and our student leadership is an area of the school I am keen to get more involved in. As part of my initial review of the school, celebrating excellence is an area I have been focussing on, and am putting together plans to lift this part of our community. I am fortunate to have the opportunity to see some outstanding work every day and simply my aim will be to offer more opportunities to celebrate this more.

This week we had a visit from our Year 11 cohort last yeast, who were in collecting certificates and picking up their art and photography work. For our current Year 11’s we saw an apprenticeships and ‘T Level’ assembly to broaden their knowledge of options Post 16. We were delighted to welcome a dedicated apprenticeships team to work with the students to promote our core value of Ambition. Ms Colbourne is doing some excellent work on careers development within the school, and again this remains a key focus in our plans moving forward.

One of the most enjoyable parts of the week is always my daily walk around the school, and the opportunity to engage students at break and lunch. This week the topics of discussion have ranged from Formula 1, inflation and impact on the economy, music genres, trigonometry, favourite subjects, the best and worst prime ministers and the best food served in the canteen. One thing as Principal, is that it is always varied!

We also said goodbye this week to Ms Teague, who has supported the school in our Eco work in the last 2 years. We wish Ms Teague the very best in her future endeavours. 

I hope you have a fantastic weekend

Best wishes,

Mr Harvey

Principal

 

ECO News

Wow, what a busy week we had last week!  Parents and students have been helping out Eco build and fill the rainwater planters, donated by the Ouse & Adur Rivers Trust, and what an amazing job they did. They have been screwing together the planks to form the rectangular planters, and setting these in place along the south facing wall of the main school building in the courtyard, and lining in preparation to be filled.  All of this hard work was done in the rain on a Saturday.  We cannot thank everyone enough, it was quite a miserable day, but you all helped and achieved so much, we are truly grateful.

Then some of our Eco Reps helped us during the week to fill the planters with the layers of stones, sand and soil, around the water pipework, ready for planting.  They did fantastically well, the bags were very heavy and awkward and they were brilliant at working together and helping one another.  I am very proud of all of them.  

Finally, it is with a heavy heart that I let you know that I am leaving King's Academy Ringmer.  Due to personal reasons, caring for a loved one, juggling this amazing job with my other commitments has become difficult.  I have really enjoyed my time here and the staff and students have been fantastic.  I wish you and King's Academy Ringmer all the best and more information will follow on eco and the weekly club shortly.

Y11 students making Churros con chocolate caliente

This week our Y11 Spanish students had the opportunity to make one of the most popular Spanish food indulgences, churros! 

We baked them instead of frying but they were still "deliciosos y muy ricos" . Nos encantan los churros. Muchas gracias. Mr Prado 

 

 

Do you qualify for Free School Meals?

To make applications easier for parents/carers we have changed the way that you can apply for free school meals. Applications are now processed online via East Sussex County Council, the criteria for being able to apply and for the online application please see the details below.

Free school meals for children in Year 3 and older

Older children may get free school meals if their parents or carers get any of these benefits:

• Universal Credit - GOV.UK – if you apply on or after 1 April 2018 your household income must be less than £7,400 a year (after tax and not including any benefits you get)

• Income Support - GOV.UK

• Income-based Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) - GOV.UK

• Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) - GOV.UK

• Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 - GOV.UK

• The Guaranteed element of State Pension Credit -GOV.UK

• Child Tax Credit - GOV.UK, only, if your annual household income (assessed by HM Revenue & Customs) isn’t over £16,190

[Anyone who gets Working Tax Credit - GOV.UK, won’t get free meals regardless of income]

• Working Tax Credit run-on – paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit

Children will get free school meals if they meet the criteria and are in school both before and after lunchtime.

Children eligible for free school meals on or after 1 April 2018 will remain eligible until they finish the phase of schooling (primary or secondary) they’re in on 31 March 2023 even if your circumstances change.

• Apply for free school meals online

Our Electronic Checking Service might be able to confirm entitlement. If not, you’ll need to show recent proof that you qualify. Meals cannot be given until eligibility is verified.

Apply online if your child goes to school in East Sussex.

 

ParentPay account for lunch money

We would appreciate it if parents can keep an eye on your child's balance for lunch and top up payments when needed please. We are having more students asking us to call home to "top-up" their lunch account on ParentPay.

To top up your child's account you need to log into your ParentPay account (details of link are below) and it will show you a balance of your child's account. To top up click on the blue tab that says pay for meals. You then add the amount that you would like to top up the account with and add to the basket. Once you have finished adding items you click on the basket and choose the payment option and complete the purchase. This is then on your child's account usually within a few minutes.

 

https://www.parentpay.com/

 

If you haven't set up a ParentPay account yet or have lost the details, please email ringmer.finance@kingsacademies.uk and we will get another letter issued with  details of how to set your account up.

 

Free School Meal Huggg vouchers Christmas Holiday 2023
We have been advised that all students in receipt of free school meals will receive a Huggg voucher for the Christmas holidays 2023. We will issue the vouchers for £50 during the last week of term in December 2023.

Please note that ALL vouchers that are sent by Huggg have an expiry date on them, we are unable to change this date so we ask you to redeem them before the expiry date shown on the voucher.  The expiry date for the Christmas holiday vouchers is 3rd January 2023.  

Thank you

Debbie Duckworth, School Business Manager

 

Lost Property

Please ensure ALL clothing worn or brought in to school is named.  We currently have 12 un-named coats and 25 un-named water bottles in Reception, as well as one or two blazers.

Any items not claimed at Christmas will be donated to charity.