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Welcome from the Principal

Dear parents

Welcome back after the Easter holiday. I

hope that you had a great time together as a family and a chance for a

little rest and relaxation.

It is good to see all our young people back well refreshed and looking

forward to all the activities and events that are due to take place over this

summer term. There were certainly a range of exciting activities going on

over the Easter Break too. My huge thanks to all those staff who were in

school running revision sessions for years 11,12 and 13 to help them

prepare for exams. There was a great uptake by students and they

certainly appreciated the dedication of staff in offering these sessions. A

special thanks also to Miss Newell, Mr Hancock and Mr Mclaughlin for

their organisation of the ski trip. It was thoroughly enjoyed by all and there

were some great tweets throughout the time to keep us up to date.

The first week back has certainly been at full throttle. All subject areas

have intensive support programmes in place for students approaching

examinations and I have to say how impressed I have been with how hard

staff and students have been working. The Post 16 team have been

working incredibly hard with students to prepare them for AS exams in

those subjects where they still exist as many are now two year A level

courses.

Personally, I have loved the eight hours of maths teaching I am now doing

each week with year 11 students to help them prepare for their GCSE’s – I

always get a professional buzz from being in the classroom again.

It was a pleasure to read and sign all 240 reports for year 7 students this

week and I am looking forward to meeting parents at the Year 7 open

evening on Monday.

One highlight of my week was meeting with the little ones from

Kingsthorpe Village primary School. Year 2 to Year 6 were represented

when they came in to continue with their art project. We also had students

from KVPS in to experience steel pan playing and I have to say I was very

impressed with how quickly they all took to it.

I also had the pleasure of being invited to attend the management board

meeting at the University of Northampton this week. It was very exciting to

share the hopes and dreams that both institutions have and realise how

much we can support each other in achieving them. I am looking forward

to really embedding some of the partnership developments for the benefits

of our young people.

Much of my week has been taken up with meeting staff who have just

joined us or who are asking to join us. We are in a very unique position in

education these days in that we are fully staffed by specialists and we

have numerous people contacting us via our talent pool wanting to come

and work with us. What a wonderful opportunity for KC students! There

have also been a number of internal promotions of staff this week and it

has been a pleasure interviewing and experiencing the passion our staff

have about what they do.

Being based on the Performing Arts corridor I have had the chance to see

the dance exams this week and the dedication with which students and

staff have been preparing. What a team of staff and young people – mind

blowing talent !!!

Wishing you all a wonderfully relaxing weekend.

Ms Morrison OBE

Principal

Welcome to new members of the KC

Team

"One can't believe impossible things." "I daresay you

haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I

was your age I always did if for half-an-hour a day. Why,

sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things

before breakfast." (Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll)

Kingsthorpe College is clearly a place where things that

might seem impossible are made possible, and I am

hugely excited to be joining KC as Vice Principal. Like everyone at KC, I

am passionate about making sure that our students are challenged,

inspired and happy every day that they walk through our doors. One of

my main roles as Vice Principal will be to help KC continue to develop first

class teaching in every classroom and I am looking forward to working

with students, staff and parents to ensure that every child is able to

achieve their potential and succeed.

Prior to joining KC, I was a Vice Principal and English teacher at The

Duston School. I specialise in A level English teaching and have much

experience as an Assistant Principal Examiner for A level English

Language. I have three children - all girls - who keep me very busy

outside of school. One of the most important things for me as a parent,

teacher and leader within a school is that all our children are supported

and motivated to do their best, and that they have the very highest

expectations of what they can achieve. For me, the most important

question at the end of the day is, "Was I better today than I was

yesterday?" We cannot ask any more.

Jennifer Giovanelli

Vice Principal

I am excited to join Kingsthorpe College as

Achievement Director for Green House and teacher of

English; I recently relocated to Northampton having

worked in London schools for the last seven years. I

am keen to ensure all students in Green House enjoy

their time at Kingsthorpe and fulfil their potential. I look

forward to meeting and getting to know students, staff

and parents over the next few weeks.

Zachary Butlin

Achievement Director – Green House

Stars of the week

Purple House, Nathan Brown, Year 11

Nathan auditioned for a dance group outside the College and joined them

in January. They have now gone on to win 3rd place in the British Dance

Championships and are through to the World Championships. Nathan is a

high achiever in his BTEC dance lessons with a fantastic attitude to

learning. Sterling work Nathan – we are so proud of you.

Green House, Matthew Robinson, Year 9

Matthew has a glowing report from Mr Jackson because he has been

working on the Literacy in Art project at Kingsthorpe Village Primary

School. He has given his time after school to help deliver the project and

to teach the primary school children. He has demonstrated drawing and

painting techniques to the students and represented Kingsthorpe College

and our core values throughout. Matthew is now supporting the primary

school children to work here at KC after school to complete the painting

that they have designed.

Gold House, Bianca Popa-Apreutesei, Year 8

Bianca has been nominated for star of the week for the fantastic support

she has shown to new students starting within her tutor group. Bianca is

an EAL student who found life difficult when she first started at KC

because if her very limited English but now she is using her experience to

help and support other new starters at the college. Well done Bianca, you

are a star!

Blue House, James May, Year 9

James has been working with Mr Jackson on the Literacy in Art project at

Kingsthorpe Village Primary School. He has given up his time after

school to help Mr Jackson deliver the project and to teach the primary

school children. James has demonstrated drawing and painting

techniques to the students and represented Kingsthorpe College and our

core values throughout.

James is a brilliant young man with 100% attendance along with a great

work ethic.

We are very proud to have James as part of the KC family. Amazing

effort, James.

Red House Star of the Week, Max Thomas, Year 11

Max Thomas is a fantastic young man who is always helpful during tutor

times and uses the time to support and inspire his fellow students in the

group. He is growing in confidence and has shown that he can both

participate in and lead class discussion on issues related to IPhone

hacking and other important points of interest. Max is a constant source of

academic guidance for his fellow tutees and often can be found advising

others on their learning and other projects. Max, you are a great role

model! Congratulations and keep the good work up!

Year 7 Parents Evening Monday 18th

April

We are all set for the Y7 subject specific parents evening on Monday from

4.30-7.45PM in the Main Hall. If you haven't made an appointment yet you

can log onto the website via the link below or through the College website.

https://kingsthorpecollege.parentseveningsystem.co.uk/

A step by step user guide can be found below:

http://www.kingsthorpecollege.org.uk/documents/ParentGuide.pdf

Due to the high demand we have set 5 minutes for each appointment so

you all get the time you deserve with teachers.

If you do not have access to the internet, please contact the school office

who will be happy to help you. Alternatively, ask your child to get a

booking sheet from Student Services and then they can contact their

teachers personally to book an appointment.

Tea and coffee will be provided during the evening.

We look forward to seeing you all!

Love Light Romania

This charity brings relief and improves the lives of children and young

people living in need.

The charity delivers aid to orphanages and street children that have been

abandoned by their families. All terminally ill children and young people

have the right to a purposeful and healthy life and the right to die with

dignity. The association works in an area covering Sibiu and Tirgu-

Mures. As well as providing services for HIV and a programme which

supports families living below the poverty line.

Blue House would like to raise as much money as possible to help this

brilliant cause.

Please can you donate any old board games that you may have?

Under 13 Rugby

The Under 13 (combined Year 7 & Year 8) Rugby team played against the

Year 8 team from MAA. For a number of our students this was their first

rugby experience and they performed exceptionally well. This was a

competitive fixture with both teams making some ‘big’ tackles and

competing ‘aggressively’ at the ‘breakdown’.

Despite some fantastic attacking rugby early on KC found themselves

trailing by 4 tries. However, after some good ‘turnovers’, Quaseem

Dawlatzai powered through the MAA defence to score two fantastic

tries. Unfortunately, the comeback was short lived with MAA scoring a

further two tries towards the end of the game. However, it was great to

see over 20 KC students new to the sport involved in a competitive rugby

match demonstrating some fantastic skills and techniques!!

Year 10 Netball v Malcolm Arnold

Academy (20 - 10 win)

Year 10 netball team played their final game of this year’s league, at

home, against Malcolm Arnold Academy. The MAA team have previously

been very strong and the games have been a battle to win or draw. This

time, our team started really strongly, with some new players joining the

squad and adding to the talent that we already have. The girls played

some excellent netball and were offering each other advice during the

game to ensure that we played our own game. The first quarter ended

with a good lead over Malcolm Arnold and this steadily progressed as the

game went on.

The game finished 20-10 to KC!! A fantastic finish to the year’s league.

Squad: Georgia Miah, Chloe Thompson, Caitlin Malone, Sherry Daniels,

Abi Francis, Maddie Cooke, Abi Caborn, Ella Mae Garrett, Jamie Leigh

Walters.

Player of the Match: Georgia Miah

KC supporting Sport Relief

The PE department supported Sport Relief by organising a number of

different activities for staff and students to get involved in.

Sport Relief Mile

A group of students and staff completed the Sport Relief mile around the

school fields. They walked, skipped and ran their way around the mile

(some of them even did the whole course as a three-legged race!). It was

brilliant to have Mrs Spencer and Mrs Broadbent joining in with the

fundraising and completing the mile with the students. A special mention

needs to be given to Jack Wright who sprinted his way across the finish

line and completed the mile first. A huge thank you to all the students who

took part, especially to those students that collected lots of sponsorship

money.

Year 10 and 11 Football Tournament

A football tournament was hosted for

Year 10 and 11 students. Each team

paid to enter and spectators also

donated £1 each to Sport Relief to

watch the spectacle.

The tournament was held over 3 days

with each team playing all the others

twice.

There were some great performances from a number of individuals

including a number of goals from Kai Church and Joe Cayton as well as a

number of saves made by ‘safe hands’ Lewis Williams. The goal of the

tournament was also seen on day 1 from team AFC, who scored a great

one touch team goal, which was finished off in superb fashion by Patrick

Casey.

The Busby Boys took an early lead in the tournament winning their first

game 5-0 and continued this lead into the second day, where they again,

didn’t lose a game.

The final day of competition was much closer and the team BAC boys

upped their game, beating the Busby Babes, however the comeback was

too late and the Busby Babes had already scored a number of goals for

which they earned bonus points and had too big a lead to catch up.

The overall results of the tournament were as follows:

1st Busby Babes 25 points

2nd BAC Boys 23 points

3rd AFC 15 points

4th Inter Me Van 6 points

Staff Rowing Challenge

The staff of KC also got involved in doing their bit for Sport Relief by

undertaking a Rowing Challenge on Friday lunchtime. Two rowers were

placed in the main hall and staff had the challenge, in teams, to row as far

as they could during the lunch break. The rowing was started off by Mr

Hancock and Miss Newell, who were a little concerned, 5 minutes in,

when no other staff arrived and thought they were going to have to row

the whole lunchtime! But, the cavalry appeared one by one, with the

following staff taking their turn: Mrs Spencer, Mr McRae-Smith, Mr

O’Leary, Mrs Marriott, Mr Cox, Mr Hill and Miss Bennett.

Students all gathered round to watch the staff, cheer them on and donate

towards the cause, as well as donating to guess how far the staff could

go.

At the end of lunch came the 10 second count down and at the very end,

the staff had managed a credible – 12, 584m and the closest student

guess to the distance was from Caitlin Malone, who received a prize.

Thank you to all the staff and students who got involved throughout the

week and did your bit for a very good cause!

Sport Relief Quiz

We held a 6th form quiz in aid of sport relief in the study

centre with over 50 students competing to be the

winning team. Each paid £1 to play. The winning team

was: Lucy Walker, Tilly Morris, Martha Casey and Molly

Casey.

We also held a huge quiz in aid of sport relief in the

library. We had 60 students competing to be the

winning team with each paying 50p to play. The

winning team was: Sasha Singh, Husna Begum,

Monica Rideout and Kundai Makavi. Well done to all of those students

who raised money and gave up their lunchtimes for such a worthy cause.

Lumbertubs Sports Day

On Thursday 17th March Miss Bennett and Mr Carey

took a group of sport leaders over to Lumbertubs

primary school. They ran a sports day for all the

children in year 1 to year 6 who competed against

each other in football, races, bench ball and multi-

skills challenges. It was an absolutely fantastic day!

Our sports leaders were superb and we got some

great feedback from the primary school staff. Some

of the leaders we took were only in year 7 but that didn’t faze them as

they confidently ran activities for the primary children.

Year 6 Welcome Party

On the last day of term we organised a Welcome Party for the year 6

children that have been successful in gaining a place at Kingsthorpe

College in September 2016. It was a great opportunity for the children to

come to Kingsthorpe College, have fun and make new friends. We had a

fantastic turn out and the children were brilliantly behaved. The Party was

‘Glow’ themed with a glow sticks, a disco and lots of party games! We

would like to say a BIG thank you to the year 7 students that came along

to help. They did a brilliant job of getting to know the year 6 children and

encouraging anyone that was a little nervous. Since the event we have

received numerous messages from parents saying how much their child

enjoyed themselves. We have included one of these lovely messages

below.

We would like to thank everyone who was involved in last night’s welcome

party. Ben went in a little nervous, he came out full of beans telling me

he'd had a great time and wishes it was September because he can't wait

to start at your school. He played games with lots of boys and made

friends with another boy who didn't know anyone called Matthew. The

party was a fantastic idea and I've told a few people about it who said

they wish their child's new schools had organised something like it. Well

done to everyone involved and we're looking forward to the next

welcoming event. - Year 6 parent

We have lots more events organised between now and September

including 2 transition days, various transition projects and a very exciting

Summer School that will be running from Monday 15th Wednesday and

17th August. Information about these will come out shortly.

Book of the week: My Brother is a

superhero by David Solomons (BL: 5.4)

Our book this week is the overall winner of the

Waterstones Children's Book Prize 2016.

The book begins as Luke, who is a comic-reading

super-hero expert, misses the crucial moment when

an alien arrives in his tree-house. However, it’s his

never-read-a-comic-in-his-life brother Zach who gets

superpowers and instructions to save the universe.

For Luke life couldn’t get any more unfair. But even

super-heroes need back up, and when Zach is

kidnapped, it falls to Luke to save his brother and the world.

This is an excellent adventure story with real heart, that’s also properly

funny, with humour that comes from the characters as well as the

situation. This book is a great holiday read.

This week’s literacy challenge winner is...

Owen Campbell P6

The word of the week is…….

“Emerge”

Definition: To begin, to come into existence.

Try and use this word in a sentence this week. My sentence is,

“The truth began to emerge; it was enlightening”.

News

Reading Heroes of the Week – Sadia Begum

This week our reading hero is Sadia Begum (year 8). Sadia is one of our

latest students to achieve Millionaire reader status. She has read an

impressive sixteen books on the Accelerated Reader programme with a

remarkable word count of 1,120,342 words read. Sadia is also a valuable

member of our book group. She will be competing in the County

Literature Quiz at the end of the year and is currently reading through the

60 books that will feature in the competition. Well done Sadia, keep up

the good work.

RFMS Competition News:

The organisers of the competition announced that it was extended until

the 15th April 2016. This meant that all of our year 7 and 8 students had

full access to this wonderful resource over the Easter break.

Our total for the competition stands at 2,943 books read which is

amazing. We have smashed last year’s total which stood at 2,344 books

read. Now that the competition was extended we are sure that we will be

able to get well over 3,000 books read before the competition ends.

Congratulations to our World Book Day

competition winners

Joely Wright B9 – Winner of the Code Breaker Competition

Charlie Wilson GR12 – Winner of the Design a Roald Dahl book

cover

Trafford Cockerill R2 – Winner of the Spot the Difference

competition

Chelsi Bouher-Theakston R7 – Design a National Book Token

Competition

The Big Bang Fair

On the 17th March, 7 year 12 students attended the Big Bang fair at the

Birmingham NEC. This was such an amazing opportunity in being able to

get advice from those in various sectors of science and technology to help

them decide what they would like to study in the future.

Students took part in many competitions and activities such as fitting a

pacemaker into a mammal’s heart and being able to go inside an

ambulance and army vehicle. They also got an insight to the productions

of BBC where they were able to experience the magic of green screens

and be a voiceover on the charts radio. We would definitely recommend

going to this event if you're wanting to have a career in

science/technology.

Post 16 Revision Evening

On the 22nd March we ran a very successful revision evening when 60

students stayed after school to work until 6 o clock. Excellent revision

practice was shown on the night; bananas (slow releasing sugar –

excellent brain food!) and water were in plentiful supply, and students

worked for fifty minutes at a time ensuring they had breaks in between,

another essential revision technique to maximise learning.

A talk was given by Dr Fritz, a cognitive psychologist and memory expert,

from Northampton University; she spoke about essential revision

techniques and ways that students can keep themselves motivated.

The reward at the end of the night was Dominoes Pizza and all students

can feel proud of making an excellent start (or continuation for most) to

their revision.

An Amazing Display by our EAL

Students

Year 7 – Sport Education

During P.E. lessons over the last 4

weeks, Mr Hancock’s year 7 group

have been taking part in a Sport

Education unit of work.

Sport Education is a programme that

can be used in P.E. to encourage

students to take a greater

responsibility for their learning, through taking on a variety of leadership

roles. Sport Education can also be used to challenge wider school issues

like attendance and organisation as students earn points for being in

lessons and for being organised with all their equipment.

The students were divided into teams during their first lesson and they

remained in these teams throughout the unit of work. Within the teams,

students were given specific roles by the team captains, such as to plan

and lead warm-ups and specific practises around the sports that were

being covered. Throughout the 4 weeks, students have covered Pop

Lacrosse, Handball and Football and have been able to gain points

through many different tasks within the lessons. Through using this

approach the students have demonstrated and developed fantastic

leadership qualities, as well as working hard to develop their own

performances within each sport.

It was extremely competitive throughout and to determine a winning team,

it came down to the final goal of the final match in the final lesson! In the

end, the red team were the winners by only 5 points!

It has been great to see all students working collaboratively within their

teams and being determined to improve not only as individuals, but also

as a team. It has also been great to see individuals take on

responsibilities within their teams and show superb leadership qualities.

Well done to all, it has been a great unit of work which has been made

possible by the positive approach and attitude displayed by all within the

group.

Overall Results:

1st – Red Team 725pts

2nd – Blue Team 720pts

3rd – Non Bibs 670pts

4th – Yellow Team 480pts

Year 12 trip to King Lear

During the Easter break, a group of Year 12 A level Literature students

and members of the English Faculty attended a performance of

Shakespeare’s ‘King Lear’ at the Royal Theatre in Northampton. This was

intended to aid students to consider the typicality and context of texts as

well as attitudes towards love.

The production was excellent and those who attended engaged in a

critical discussion afterwards about its links with other texts and the

staging of the play. It was an enjoyable visit and the students were a

credit to the college.

University Of Oxford - UNIQ Summer

School Success

We are delighted to say that Ellie Morgan was successful in her

application to the University of Oxford’s UNIQ summer school in early July

studying Egyptology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies. As well as

achieving her stunning GCSE results to help earn her place on this

course, she also had to write a 2000 word personal statement as part of

the summer school application. There are only 800 places available and

they receive over 6000 applications, so Ellie deserves a really big well

done!

Well Done on First Round Success

Congratulations! “Butterflies” by Natalie Morton is through to the next

stage of the 500 WORDS! Competition.

The organisers received over 123,400 entries and this story has been

picked - as one of just 4,500 - to go to the Reading Agency for the second

round of judging.

Well done and good luck! We will know in early May if “Butterflies” has

been shortlisted for the Final 50.

KC partners with Schools in the

USA

In January, Mrs Coleman approached

three student ambassadors for English

Literature and asked for their help in

developing the links between the

schools overseen by the Collaborative

Academies Trust in America and Kingsthorpe College. She envisaged

that her sixth formers would set up an introduction to Kingsthorpe, or

something similar, which we could share with these American schools.

She was, therefore, a little taken aback when their response was that they

wanted to go out to America and visit these schools themselves. They

suggested that they could adapt projects they have run at Kingsthorpe,

where they have worked with younger year groups, and that we could

share teaching ideas. Mrs Coleman explained the financial implications

and they immediately presented her with several suggestions for raising

funds. Together, they produced a project proposal with pen portraits,

aims, objectives, outcomes and a financial estimate and thus ‘Project

Take Flight’ was born.

‘Project Take Flight’ is an ambitious idea and we are now a dedicated and

focused team of five; Mr Arterton and Mrs Coleman are leading it as

members of staff but it is mainly being driven by our three sixth formers,

Conor Cotter, Rebecca Kings and Bethany Lay. It is a great privilege to

work with three such motivated and committed students and this is very

much their initiative. As a group, the aim is to fly out to America to work

with students who face challenges to their educational experiences. We

hope to travel to Chicago during the October Half Term 2016 to visit some

of the Bridgescape Academies supported by Magic Johnson the famous

basketball player (alternative education establishments which aim to help

students who have not completed their high school diploma) as well as

TRCCA, a high school in Gary, Indiana.

This is a trip which will obviously come at significant financial cost and we

are starting to organise events to help raise this money. We are already

exploiting the musical talents of Mr Arterton, Conor and Rebecca and are

also hoping to organise other events. Conor, Rebecca and Bethany are

applying for grants and we will be contacting local organisations to seek

sponsorship. As well as this, we will be holding a silent auction and a

raffle and will be seeking donations for both of these from local

companies. We will be keeping the Kingsthorpe College community up to

date with our progress through a weekly report (each week written by a

different member of ‘Take Flight’) and will provide more detailed reports

and pictures of our events as we go along. As a group, our intention is

to clearly demonstrate that, at Kingsthorpe, everything really is

possible.

If you are, in anyway, able to help us make this project a reality, please do

not hesitate to get in touch with us through the school or by emailing

(abbie.coleman@kingsthorpecollege.org.uk).

Dates for your Diary

Monday 18th April - Year 7 Parents Evening Friday 22nd April - Apprenticeship Show – Post 16 Friday 22nd April - Author Visit - Year 7 & 8 Saturday 23rd April - Big Bang STEM Fair – Year 7 Tuesday 26th April - Tower of London – Post 16 Wednesday 27th April - Rockingham Castle –Year 10 Thursday 28th April - Rockingham Castle – Year 10

Don’t throw out your old uniform!

If you have KC uniform that you no longer need or use and it is still in

good condition, please bring it in to school. We can use it for emergencies

and for our second hand exchange programme. Thank you!.

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Kingsthorpe College

Boughton Green Road

Northampton, NN2 7HR

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