It’s hard to believe that half term is almost here, we have had a very busy six weeks with GCSE examinations, sports fixtures and other events. A small group of students have been on a ski trip to Switzerland all week. They were lucky to have fantastic snow, creating really good skiing conditions. Thanks to Mr Halstead who led the trip. Some of our students leaders and students from the inclusion faculty together with students from Queensbury Special School visited the Houses of Parliament earlier this week, courtesy of Jack Dromey, MP. Thanks to Miss Sharp, Mrs Guarini and Mr Roberts for accompanying the trip.  Our year 9 and 10 football teams unfortunately lost their quarter final games against St Thomas Aquinas School, playing well against tough opposition. Thanks to team managers Miss Pearson and Mr Brough. On Friday we had a Spelling Bee for year 5 students from our partner primary schools. It was amazing to see the pupils spelling challenging words with such confidence, I think they would give some of the Kingsbury students a run for their money. Thanks to Miss Bunn, Miss Cook, Mrs Hartwell and Mrs Jakszta for organising the event.

After half term we are changing our policy on the use of mobile phones and other devices in school as this is creating problems in lessons. We will operate a ‘not seen, not heard’ rule in and between lessons. This means that students must not use mobile devices or headphones during lessons and changeovers and can only use these devices at break with permission from staff. We will be reinforcing this with students next week.

Last week was a sad time at Kingsbury with the news that Rose Alexander, one of our teaching assistants, died on Monday after a long battle with cancer. Rose was a well loved member of staff, a lively character with a fabulous sense of humour who will be greatly missed. Our thoughts and sympathy are with her family. A memorial will be held for Rose later this term.

Other news, year 10 and 11 are coming to the end of the January GCSE exam series which has gone very well. Our year 9 and 10 football teams have reached the quarter finals of the cup and are now one match away from playing at Villa Park. Good luck to both teams. Our sports leaders are continuing to have a positive impact with excellent reports from the primary schools where they are helping out at multi sports events. Well done to all involved. I hope you got the January edition of our newsletter which has more information about school events. It will also be available on line, just seach under the Home menu.

We came back on Wednesday 4th Jan after the Christmas break. I think most people were ready to return, the students settled back very well, helped by a short week. Last week we were back into the swing of things with many year 10 and 11 students sitting GCSE exams. We had our maths results for the November entry students and were pleased with these. Well done to the maths faculty and the Year 11s. Currently we have 33% of students with a C or above in maths and English which is our highest ever at this stage in the year.  We are hoping to hit 50%+  in August, so fingers crossed. As we move towards the excitement of London 2012 we are planning a series of activities to mark this historic occasion, including our next enrichment day in March and a World Games Day event in June.  We are part of the Get Set network which gives us access to some fabulous teaching resources which we will be using in lessons.  

As always, we are continuing to push the basics of uniform, attendance and punctuality. We achieved just over 94% attendance for the autumn term. Thanks to students, parents and carers for supporting this improvement. Let’s hope we can sustain it this term.

This week saw the appointment of the new head teacher,  Ms Catherine O’ ‘Driscoll.  Over two days of a selection process covering a range of tasks including: meetings with students and staff, delivering a presentation to governors and a number of formal interviews,  Ms O’ Driscoll beat a very strong field of candidates to be offered the post which she will take up at the start of the summer term. I am very pleased that we were able to make such a good appointment as I am aware that many headteacher vacancies are left unfilled. I look forward to working with the new head next term as we plan the handover.

The Enrichment Day on Friday 9th December proved to be a huge success, particularly with year 11 who spent the day with a motivational presenter planning and delivering speeches about themselves.  Year 10 were involved in a health education day and year 9  had some taster sessions with universities and colleges. Year 8 planned and organised a Winter Fair,  selling items that they had made during technology lessons this half term. Year 7 spent the day looking at ‘staying safe’, covering topics such as  personal safety and  internet safety. The day is the first of three days that are being planned this year. The next, which takes places in March will have ‘Our Sporting World’  as its theme in the build up to London 2012.

We are heading towards the end of a very busy term with a number of events coming up. Last week we were one of almost 90% of schools across the country that were closed or partially closed due to the industrial action by public sector workers in relation to the proposed pension reforms. Despite this we managed to maintain our improved attendance, up by more than 2% compared to last year. This week sees the interviews for the new headteacher on Tuesday and Wednesday, I’ll let you know who’s been appointed as soon as I can. We have an enrichment day for the whole school on Friday which should be very exciting. Each year group will take part in different activities with some students visiting universities, others taking part in a health education day and some running the school’s Winter Fair. Thanks to Mrs Jakszta for putting the enrichment day together. 150 year 7 and 8 students went bowling and skating last Friday as a reward for positive behaviour this term. We will be focusing on promoting positive behaviour over the next two weeks, encouraging students to be responsible around school and in the local community.

As you can see I am falling behind with this blogging thing, I just don’t know where the time goes. I have been talking to a lot of students about my departure and have been pleased to hear that they recognise the great strides that the school has made.  I  will be sad to leave, KSSC is a great place to work and there is much still to do. However, what I have said to the students  is that they have made a huge contribution to the  improvements that have  been made.   The vast majority are keen to learn and understand that they need to make the most of the time they have in school.  On that note, we had a very positive year 10 parents’ evening on 10th November where over 60% of parents attended to discuss their child’s progress with subject teachers. We also featured heavily in the Tyburn Mail with some fabulous reporting of the Black History celebration, the Careers’ Fair and the work of the Sports Partnership. We had a range of small scale activities for Children in Need with students selling cakes and taking part in sponsored events.  Our bid to be part of the ‘Get Set’ network, which is part of the build up to the London Olympics, was successful so we will be able to host a series of sporting events in 2012.  This week, a group of year 7 students visited RAF Cosford as part of the STEM club – there was a brief glimpse of them on the morning news! Our year 10 football team beat Great Barr 2-1 to reach the semi finals of the cup, well done to the team. Also, three of our year 11 dancers have applied and been selected to work with professional choreographers at the Royal Opera House this weekend, a fantastic experience for them! We are continuing our push on standards of uniform and will be following up with students who are not in full uniform next week. Thank you for your support on this.

I have some important news to share with you. After five happy and successful years as head teacher I am sorry to be leaving KSSC at the end of the spring term. I am moving to the headship of a bigger school, closer to home, in order to spend more time with my family. I have thoroughly enjoyed the past five years, we have been through some fantastic times and there has scarcely been a dull moment. I know the governors are already working on appointing my successor,  I am sure the new head will lead the school to even greater success. It has been a pleasure and a privilege to lead KSSC on its improvement journey and watch the staff and students grow in confidence and pride as we have achieved better and better outcomes.  I want to thank everyone connected with the school for the support they have given me in my time here and to wish you all the very best for the future. There is still much to do and it will be ‘business as usual’ until April,  I look forward to working with you over the next few months as we continue to move the school forward.

There has been lots of activity this week around our Black History Celebration. Although Black History Month is officially in October, we chose to have our celebration on Thursday to give us longer to prepare. The theme for the evening was Africa Calling and a number of events took place. The library hosted an exhibition of  work by local artists and work from our Textiles students.  The canteen served a delicious menu of African, Caribbean and Asian food. The Young Enterprise team took the opportunity to sell their wares with one group selling freshly made fruit smoothies and another offering Mendhi designs. The students performed African dance and a drama  based on the story of  Harriet Tubman and the underground rail road which took slaves to freedom in the US. There was an excellent turnout from students and parents with over 200 people attending.  Thanks to all the staff and students who helped to make the evening such a success. Many of our students and staff will be celebrating Eid-Ul-Adha this weekend so best wishes to you and your families. We will see students on Tuesday 8th November as we have an INSET day on Monday 7th.

Half term is finally here and I think both the staff and students are looking forward to a well earned break. The final week has been full of celebration with each year group receiving awards during assembly for achieving the PACER  qualities of Participation, Achievement, Citizenship, Endeavour or Responsibility. The students with the most Vivo miles in each year group also got a prize. We had an excellent turn out to our year 11 parents’ evening on Thursdaywith almost 70% of parents attending to discuss their child’s progress. Two of our year 11 girls have been running a Breast Cancer appeal in school for the past few weeks. They have organised a number of activities to raise money for charity. They ran an assembly for year 10 and 11 girls on Friday and our head boy was sponsored to dress as a female student for the day.  We finished the half term with a Halloween disco for year 7 students run by the student leadership team and others. Some fabulous costumes were on show. Thanks to all the students and staff involved in organising this. Wishing everyone a good half term holiday. See you back in school on Monday 31st October.

I think we are all glad that we are nearing the end of what has been a good but hectic first half term. We had a fabulous Careers’ Fair on Thursday attended by twenty eight providers giving students from years 9,10,11, and their parents, information and advice about further education colleges, sixth forms, apprenticeships and careers in Public Services such as the Armed Forces and the NHS. It was great to see our students engaging in conversation with a range of adults who remarked on how polite and well behaved they were. Feedback about the event was extremely positive and a huge thank you must go to all involved. We hope to make this an annual event. Within school, the focus for this week has been around futures and setting targets for achievement. We have just completed a climate walk for year 10 and collected information on year 11 in preparation for next week’s parents’ evening. What is really pleasing is our current attendance figure which stands at 95%. This is a 3% improvement on this time last year and the best attendance that we have ever had at KSSC. Well done to 10K who achieved 100% attendance this week.  Thanks to the attendance team for their hard work and to parents and carers for their continued support.