This newsletter brings to end an amazing year for Kents Hill Park School. We can’t quite believe how quickly the year has gone and how much we have achieved in that time. It really doesn’t seem like five minutes since all the Year 7s were sat rather nervously on their first day.
In that time we have seen them grow as individuals and as members of our KHP community, contributing in an ever-widening way through their talents and positivity. Whilst they are integral to all that we do, we wouldn’t have been able to achieve it without the hard work and dedication of an amazing group of teachers and support staff. They have worked tirelessly to provide the best opportunities for the pupils through all the challenges that opening a new school brings, and I would like to publicly thank them for their work.
We are very excited about welcoming a new cohort of Year 3 and Year 7 pupils to the school in September and we know that we have set up an excellent environment for them to flourish. We had a super induction day with them on 4th July.
The end of this term has seen us come together as a school to celebrate our progress and achievements through our awards evening and celebration assembly. It has been wonderful to acknowledge all the wonderful achievements of the pupils over this year. There have been some notable successes.
We were able to launch our House system in time for our first Year 7 sports day in July. There was some amazing competition and fantastic effort all round, with Turing House eventually coming out victorious. All pupils and staff will be a member of a House and we are looking forward to lots of different competitions next year in all sorts of disciplines.
Sport has quickly become an integral part of what we do at KHP and our sports teams continue to do well. Our football, athletics and rounders teams have performed excellently across the season with many notable victories. Some of our boys have started to play cricket for the very first time and they were ecstatic with their first victory recently as they go from strength to strength.
Our series of lectures from the Open University have also continued this term and we have extended our pupils’ thinking with lectures on Computational Musicology and Maths Beyond Numbers. It has really made the pupils think beyond their normal lessons and subjects. So too did the visit to the Body Worlds Exhibition in London recently with many pupils amazed by the opportunity to see inside a real human body. It certainly made their work in science much more real.
There has been lots of success for pupils across a whole range of activities, with Cliff becoming our Speed Chess Champion, and Clifford reaching the top 6% nationally in the Junior Maths Challenge. We have also competed with Oakgrove School in a Technology competition and hosted the MK Futures conference with many other schools contributing to the future development of Milton Keynes. Congratulations to Carson additionally, who won our 500 words competition with his excellent piece on ‘Spirit Hunter’.
Our partnership with our neighbours at Slated Row school continues to develop and grow and it is a real pleasure to be able to develop many further links with them. We hosted their sports day back in June and many of our Junior Sports Leaders worked superbly well with their pupils to help organise an excellent event. We have also held a joint musical evening with choirs and musicians from both schools working together to produce a very entertaining evening. It will be the first of many, I hope.
As we bring this year to a close, I would also like to thank all the families who have contributed so positively to our first year. We have achieved so much and have appreciated the support that we have been given. As we grow and welcome new cohorts of pupils is am sure that there will be new challenges and opportunities for us to overcome and embrace, but I know that we have made the best possible start.
I hope that you have a wonderful summer break, and that all pupils return to us ready for another exciting year ahead.
James Pilgrim
Headteacher