Well done to everyone who is part of our Kents Hill Park School community, it has been another fantastic half term, with so many successes on top of the hard work and academic focus. We yet again have had the chance to celebrate all our success in our end of term assembly, which was brilliantly led by Year 3 Curie class. The topic was World War Two, and was enjoyed hugely by the Year 7’s as they shared their learning. Lots of awards and success was also celebrated.
As we move towards the end of the season for many of our sports leagues, many teams find themselves at the top, or close to the top, in a variety of sports. This is a fantastic achievement for a school with only 120 pupils, and we look forward to the first piece of silverware for the school. Over 90% of our pupils have taken part in an extra-curricular activity at some point this year, and it already is part of our culture and expectations that we try new things and take part. The pupils have been superb in having the confidence to set-up, organise and run many activities that they wish to be part of. A good example of this is our Board Games Club which was set up by Sam and Jake and is growing steadily in numbers. There are some highly competitive games of Risk and Chess!
Pupils recently attended the Big Bang Fair in Birmingham, whilst others participated in a Sports Science Day. This was all part of our first ever Science Week. Exploding methane bubbles and dropping eggs from the second floor to see which survived were particular highlights.
Our staff continue to inspire and stretch the children at Kents Hill Park, and our very talented Art and DT Technician, Miss Asare, was part of an exhibition, ‘Expressions of the Black British Experience’, at the OXO Tower Wharf in London recently. Her artwork received some fantastic reviews, and she also supported Oakgrove School’s Year 11 pupils with their submission works for their GCSE’s.
We hosted the AlterEgo Theatre Company in February who performed ‘Breaking the Chain’ to Year 7. This was a powerful performance that encouraged the pupils to think hard about the choices they make in their lives and the consequences of the wrong choices. It was focused around the current issues of knife crime.
As always the pupils have responded very well to the demands of being the first cohort through the school and the high expectations we put on them in terms of their attitude, behaviour and representation of the school. These habits, and the breaking of old ineffective habits, really will set them in good stead to become the confident, independent, forward-thinking individuals they all strive to be.
I wish you all a wonderful and restful Easter break and look forward to welcoming you back for the summer term.
James Pilgrim
Headteacher