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Dear Parent/Carer
Lots to celebrate in this newsletter as we hurtle towards the end of term and all the fun of Christmas at the High School!
For those parents new to KSHS this year, Christmas is full of opportunities for students to demonstrate some of the skills they don't always get the chance to develop as part of the classroom curriculum. Older students will practise their public speaking skills at the annual senior Prizegiving, students who volunteer as part of the Interact club will organise the Senior Citizens' Christmas Party and entertain guests with games, chat and music. Our talent show finalists are warming up ready to perform to a hall full of their peers and we will end the term with both a carol concert in St Denys' for the whole school and our big end of term celebration assembly, one of the highlights of the year.
The past two weeks have seen Year 11 students complete their mock exams, our STEM finalists travel to London for the Quadcopter national finals, Sixth form students present their EPQ projects, Drama students attend a performance residential and students from all years practise for the Christmas concert. This, on top of a schedule of extracurricular sports fixtures and our participation in the cross school North Kesteven student Question Time event, means there has been plenty for students to get involved in.
Do read on... and thanks as ever for your parental support!
Mrs J Smith
Headteacher
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Top Ten Again! KSHS Shines in The Sunday Times Rankings
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We are proud to once again be ranked among the top ten East Midlands High Schools this year, continuing a tradition of success from previous years. This national recognition reflects the dedication and hard work of our students and staff, as well as the incredible support from parents and the wider school community. Together, we make our high school an outstanding place to learn and grow. Read the full story here: https://citacademies.co.uk/top-ten-again-kesteven-sleaford-high-school-shines-in-sunday-times-rankings/
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Students in KS3 and KS4 enjoyed some problem-solving starters in lessons during Maths Week recently. Students had to use a range of strategies from algebra, working systematically, and using tables to record their working. It was excellent to hear the students explain their methods, and a good reminder for students that there are often multiple ways to approach more challenging problems. Below are a couple of our favourites-can you solve them?
Mrs K Mahfouz
Second in Mathematics
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Celebrating Success at the Willoughby Memorial Trust Open Art Competition 2025
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The Art Department is delighted to celebrate the achievements of our talented students who took part in this year’s Willoughby Memorial Trust Open Art Competition. This event showcases creativity across Lincolnshire, and our students certainly rose to the occasion!
We are incredibly proud to announce that two of our entrants were highly commended for their exceptional submissions.
Ronin (2025 Photography Cohort) impressed the judges with his stunning photographic work, demonstrating a sophisticated understanding of composition, narrative, and atmosphere. His piece stood out and was a prominent talking piece in the gallery!
Grace (2025 Fine Art Cohort) was also recognised for her beautiful ink-pen artwork, praised for its intricate detail, confident mark-making, and craftsmanship. Her dedication to refining her technique truly shone through.
Mr M Glithero
Subject Leader - Art
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Daisy in 9W has recently found out that she successfully auditioned for the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain! This is a very competitive and prestigious band. She worked really hard for the online audition. She has been a member of the National Children’s Band for a few years, so she is very excited to be moving up to the main band.
She also came third in her age group of the Lincolnshire Young Musician of the year competition held in Louth in November.
The Music Department
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A Level Psychology Trip to London
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Last week Year 12 and Year 3 A-Level Psychology students made their way to London for a conference about the latest developments in the subject. This included engaging and informative talks from five specialists in the field. The students learnt about how focused attention is more difficult in this modern world than ever before, how behavioural science is used to influence us (e.g. how to ‘nudge’ someone effectively via social media), the link between autism and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), whether criminals are mad and/or bad and the impact of nutrition on brain functionality. There was also a study skills session, tailored specifically to the A-Level Psychology course. Before leaving London, there was some time for the students to explore Covent Garden; to experience some of the cultural atmosphere that the capital has to offer. All in all, a very successful and enjoyable day for everyone involved.
Mrs H Brooks
Subject Leader - Psychology
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Language Nut held another competition in November to see who could achieve the most points in two weeks and we are proud to say that as a school we came 5th! We had six students who scored over a million points and two students who scored an incredible 13,000,000 points each! That is a lot of vocabulary!
Congratulations to Jasmine and Adriana in 8MAP who finished in 6th and 8th place respectively. Jasmine wins £25 in Amazon and shopping vouchers and Adriana wins a £10 Amazon voucher. The rest of our top 10 students will also receive mini prizes for their great efforts. Keep up the great work!
Mrs L Samworth
Subject Leader - MFL
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Students Soar at the Raytheon Quadcopter National Finals
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After winning the regional stage of the Raytheon Quadcopter Challenge, our school’s quadcopter team comprising of Lexi, Harshoo, Krishita, Hannah, and Amy, travelled to London on Tuesday 25 November to compete in the National Finals. The event was held at the prestigious Honourable Artillery Company Museum, providing a fantastic backdrop for a day of innovation, engineering, and teamwork. See more on this in our 'Latest news' section below.
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 | 05 Dec 2025 The Raytheon Quadcopter Challenge is a national STEM competition that invites students to design, build, programme, and fly their own quadcopter. Each team must also deliver a technical presentation explaining their engineering process, and how their quadcopter was modified to provide support for a... |
 | 05 Dec 2025 Free Local Workshops for Parents & FamiliesThe Mental Health Support Team (MHST) and Healthy Minds offer online workshops to support young people and families learn new strategies to manage a variety of emotional wellbeing concerns from managing anger to building resilience and staying emoti... |
 | 05 Dec 2025 Whether your family is at home together or apart because of deployment, training, or distance, reading the same book, talking about it and sharing your thoughts, and making a scrapbook is fun for everyone and will be a shared experience you will always remember. |
 | 05 Dec 2025 Last term, KSHS students had an amazing opportunity to bring their cultures to the World Fair. There were 24 stalls that showed off different students’ heritages: France, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Egypt, Nigeria, Rwanda, Afghanistan, Turkey, Mauritius, Bangladesh, Tanzania, China, Japan, Malaysia, Malt... |
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KSHS PTA run an online preloved uniform shop with good quality school and PE uniform available all year round. Stock List updated this week.
Please visit https://padlet.com/Uniform/Uniformlink to order and for more information.
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Library and Literacy News
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Christmas in our school library is always an exciting time. Creating a Christmas tree made entirely from books is our traditional way to start the countdown to the mid-winter holiday, and for the third year running we have run collaborative lunchtime sessions with the Art department, creatively upcycling books that have been retired. In addition, our termly Library Live Lounge has taken place, with festive themed performances and audience participation.
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“Reading is an exercise in empathy; an exercise in walking in someone else’s shoes for a while.” – Malorie Blackman
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With many KSHS students hoping to receive books for Christmas, the winter break offers plenty of opportunities to curl up quietly and read. This is a great way to achieve down time in what can be a very busy and hectic time. However, for those families that are travelling this Christmas- Audio Books offer a fantastic alternative to reading. The National Literacy Trust recently conducted a survey on young people and listening to books.
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At a time when reading for enjoyment levels are at an all-time low nationally , findings suggest that listening to audio formats, including audiobooks and podcasts, has the potential to support learning, wellbeing and reading engagement in many children and young people.
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A wide range of Audio books can be accessed for free from local libraries: Follow these links to find out more on how to join and access audio collections for free https://prism.librarymanagementcloud.co.uk/lincolnshire/home
https://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/culture-leisure/libraries/inspire
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“Books and doors are the same thing. You open them, and you go through into another world.” – Jeanette Winterson
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Either listening to or reading from a book provides a wealth of lifelong benefits.
- Supports wellbeing
- Improves literacy skills and learning outcomes
- Encourages empathy and cultural awareness
- Sparks imagination and creativity
Encouraging our young people to read more can be a challenge. With most secondary school age children now owning a mobile phone, alongside leading busy and near constantly connected lives, some distractions can be difficult to manage. However, building a manageable reading for pleasure habit into daily routines can be achieved. As with all habits, establishing a new one takes time and commitment, daily attentiveness and perseverance.
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“Reading is important. If you know how to read, then the whole world opens upto you.”– Barack Obama
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Choosing the right read for you
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“Let’s be reasonable and add an eighth day to the week that is devoted exclusively to reading.” – Lena Dunham
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U16 Football Team pictured above
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Staff are invited to nominate students who have demonstrated a Growth Mindset in the past few weeks. This might have been in lessons, in clubs, tutor time or simply around school. Please note we already award bi-annual subject badges and merits for good academic work, effort and improvement. These Growth Mindset nominations recognise those who show resilience (academic or otherwise); who aren’t afraid to get things wrong and learn from it; those who have a go, take themselves out of their comfort zone or show that even if a task is tough, they will persevere.
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| Student |
Form |
Subject |
| Sarana Boyd |
7A |
English |
| Matilda Jones |
7L |
German |
| Matilda Jones |
7L |
Mathematics |
| Daisie Wright |
7W |
Technology |
| Sofia Viscomi |
8HK |
Mathematics |
| Felicity Cartwright |
8KLM |
Technology |
| Evelyn Hartley |
8MAP |
English |
| Evie Havenhand |
8MAP |
History |
| Merryn Johnson-Rook |
8MAP |
Ethics & Philosophy |
| Daisy Jones |
8MAP |
Physical Education |
| Imogen Lambert |
8MAP |
English |
| Grace Dickinson |
8NP |
English |
| Godsblessing Agbonzikilo |
9A |
Science |
| Edie Collett |
9A |
Science |
| Chloe Lawson |
9F |
English |
| Jonelle Osei-Owusu |
9L |
Mathematics |
| Imogen Peet |
9L |
Science |
| Annabel Redhead |
9L |
Science |
| Faye Addis |
9W |
French |
| Charlotte Bowers |
9W |
French |
| Khadija Farhan |
9W |
French |
| Scarlett Davis |
10AH |
German |
| Esme Williamson |
10APO |
English |
| Alexa Wright |
10APO |
Business |
| Hannah Pickard |
10FJ |
English |
| Ella Pratt |
10FJ |
Physical Education |
| Xiaochu Chen |
10HB |
Mathematics |
| Ava Daff |
10HB |
Business |
| Summer Jardine |
10PA |
Mathematics |
| Anya Jenkinson |
10PA |
Technology |
| Abigail Jones |
10PA |
Science |
| Eleanor Judge |
10PA |
Mathematics |
| Izzy Jones |
11L |
German |
| Izzy Jones |
11L |
Physical Education |
| Bea Marti |
11L |
Geography |
| Darcie Parrott |
11L |
Geography |
| Aditi Revu |
12L |
Business BTEC Sgl |
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School have been contacted by Meningitis Now who have asked us to share the information about Meningitis. Please take a moment to read the poster below, which highlights key symptoms and when to seek urgent help. Early recognition saves lives.
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