Your Views are invited...

As we now ‘live with Covid’, the Government is very clear about the importance of good attendance for every child, no matter what their circumstances. The link below shares our Trust policy on attendance and ensures you are aware of the expectations we have and the steps will take to ensure your child misses as little learning time as possible. A primary or secondary child whose attendance rate falls below 90% is deemed to be a ‘Persistent Absentee’ and the school will do all it can to work with parents/carers when this is the case, or looks likely to become the case. Do please have a look at expectations around term time absences such as holidays, or the challenge and support we will offer for a child who is struggling to attend in our Draft Attendance Policy

I also invite you to read our school specific Relationship and Sex Education Policy and let us have any comments you’d like to make.

A lot of thought has been given this year to the Personal Development curriculum which our students access as they move through the school. Tutors, Heads of Year, PSHE teachers, subject teachers and our Careers Lead are working hard to help students navigate the tricky waters of adolescence under three key curriculum headings: Living in the Wider World, Health and Wellbeing and Relationships. You can read more about this here: Kesteven & Sleaford High School - Personal Development (kshs.uk)

If you would like to share any views on either of the above policies or on the Personal Development Curriculum, please email our clerk to the Governors Debbie.Scott@robertcarretrust.uk to ensure your comments are shared with the Local Governing Body, including our newly appointed parent governors, and with me.

Comments will be collated and shared in school on 17 November.

Many thanks

Mrs J Smith

You said..........we will.................

A huge thank you to all those who attended the Year 7 settling in eveving. I hope you agree that it was lovely for the school to be able to host all the events on the school site this year.

A parent survey was sent out to help us monitor our transition provision and make any necessary adjustments for the future. Feedback received has been overwhelmingly positive, with parents/carers valuing the KSHS Year 6 induction process. Parents/Carers commented on how welcoming, approachable, friendly and kind staff are, as well as the positive impact subject teachers have had upon individual Year 7 students.

Parents/Carers said that to aid the transition phase, they would have benefitted from further details surrounding key pieces of information, such as uniform, subject specific equipment, how to set up and work school emails and Teams. Therefore, we plan to create a pre-September guide for parents/carers in the future to help bridge the transition between Year 6 and Year 7.  

Miss J Nutt

Head of Year 7

A huge thank you to all those who completed the Uniform survey. There was an even range of replies from all year groups and as promised here is a summary of the results.

Feedback received was overwhelmingly positive, with 92% of parents/carers agreeing that the current school uniform and PE kit provides an appropriate sense of identity and community.  81% agree the uniform can be sourced easily and 68% agree it is affordable and good value for money. Many of you commented on the value the skirt provides saying it washes well and lasts several years and almost half stating they haven’t had to replace any skirt or trousers since the student started school.

After reading the comments and suggestions we have worked with our suppliers to make some amendments to the uniform in order to save costs for parents/carers and ensure you can get hold of uniform items as easily as possible. Please see below the items remaining and updates that will come into force in January 2023. Parents/Carers are not expected to replace existing uniform or kit that still fits until it needs replacing, even if that’s after January 2023.

Uniform changes

Uniform: Skirts / grey trousers / blazers and jumpers – no changes.

Blouse / Shirt:  The KSHS branded blouse can be replaced by either a plain open necked (revere collar) white short-sleeved blouse or a plain white collared shirt (long or short-sleeved) worn with the school’s plain bottle-green tie.

Green socks can be replaced by plain black ankle socks. Green or black tights are still permitted.

PE kit: Black polo shirt with logo and black hoody with logo – no changes.

KSHS branded football socks – to be replaced with plain black football or sports socks.

PE Skort – to be replaced with self-stripe black football style shorts available from any retailer (see image below) as a cooler option to leggings. Leggings will still be required in non PE lessons for health and safety reasons.

All other uniform expectations around jewellery and make up remain the same.

Suppliers

Thank you for comments regarding suppliers. KSHS deliberately uses two suppliers who have a mixture of face to face and online systems to provide parents/carers with choice regarding quality and price of items. This means parents/carers can decide which supplier provides best value uniform for them.

Pre-Loved Uniform

Please consider donating pre-loved, yet still usable uniform to the PTA. We politely request that items are washed before donation as we have no central washing facility. All items of school uniform that are clean, in good condition and of the current pattern (apart from socks / tights) are welcome. Items can be put in the collection box outside the textiles classroom. We would be particularly grateful for donations of skorts as these items will be supplied by the school for students competing in competitions outside of school. Please remove any name labels where possible before donating.

The RCT DofE Celebration Evening took place on Wednesday 2 November in the hall at KSHS.  Over 150 people attended.  The Guest Speaker was Mrs Rachael Hockmeyer who spoke about her DofE journey and her volunteer role as the Carre’s Grammar School DofE Verifier.  Mrs Smith presented the Certificates to the young people which included some British Heart Foundation Heartstart Awards, some DofE Certificate of Achievements as well as the Bronze, Silver and two Gold Award Certificates and badges.  The two new DofE Prefects were also presented their certificates and badges.  Even some of the staff received certificates for their First Aid course recently held.  All recipients left the event with cake.

A fantastic night was had by all.

Mrs M Walker

DofE Co-ordinator

The Interact Club is having a very busy term! Club secretary Katie, 8A has the following to report:

In the short space of only a few weeks we, as Interact club members, have already achieved a lot and are planning many more things before Christmas. Collections for our food bank have succeeded and have recently been collected to the delight of Sleaford Rotary club.

Much like last year, we are currently filling shoeboxes to be sent away in November to households in need of presents for children, adults and we even provide household items and toiletries. The Sleaford food larder has asked us to pass on their thanks for all of your generous donations and thank you in advance for those contributing towards the Shoebox appeal.

Additionally, we are planning a Christmas party for the senior citizens of Sleaford and the surrounding areas, where there will be performances given by the music and drama departments, food prepared by the food club and of course many Interact members to chat with.

Our Senior Citizens’ Christmas Party will take place in the afternoon of Tuesday 6 December. The invitation is below with details. If you know a senior citizen who would like to come along, please pass on the invitation! We just need to know if they intend to come (RSVP by 25 November) so that we can cater accordingly.