As you can see from the headlines above, our current year 10 stu-dents and those year 11 students who left in the summer achieved wonderful exam results and we are all very proud of them. I would like to thank you as parents and carers and all staff at the school for the work and support given to the students. For those SATs students who had near misses and were only a few

marks off a level 6, we are confident they will achieve a grade C in their English and maths GCSE’s. We are sure that our 5A*-C figure including English and maths will rise to within striking distance of the national floor target of 30% in 2009 - an achievement that we are on target to reach in 2010 but are hoping to meet a year early. We saw a successful laptop roll out on Wednesday 22nd October. Parents and key stage 3 students attended to collect their laptops and hear a safety talk by West Midlands Police and ‘getting started’ instructions before all going home with

big smiles on their faces. I could honestly say I don’t know who were the more excited - students or parents!

KINGS NORTON

HIGH TIMES

October 2008

IN THIS ISSUE

What’s in the bag?

Assembly action

A GREAT START TO AN EXCITING YEAR

68% A*-C

GCSE results

SATs - best ever results for level

5’s and above in all core subjects

West Midlands Police and ‘getting started’ instructions before all going home with big smiles on their faces. I could honestly say I don’t know who were the more excited - students or parents! Could I thank you for your support in this initiative - with the vast majority of parents/carers signing up to make pay-ments for laptops, we are able to continue rolling out the initiative in future years. Without you, this

could not have happened. Thursday morning saw the start of laptops being used in lessons and already we can see the impact they are having on the learning and

teaching within our school. Learners are to be found be-tween lessons in dining areas and other such nooks and crannies in laptop huddles. They are getting used to this new piece of kit which we expect will improve their home learning, independent and research skills. In addition, they and you will be able to begin a ‘real time’ dialogue with the school curriculum and even, by email, your child’s teachers

and support workers. Reporting will not need to be termly but can begin to run continuously. Here’s to an exciting new school year!

Denise Burns, headteacherDenise Burns, headteacherDenise Burns, headteacherDenise Burns, headteacher

* * * DATE CHANGE * * * Pastoral review day has been moved to Thursday 27th November 2008. Further information will be issued in due course.

93% Celebrating

attendance

Election success

‘How to’ videos will be placed on the school website over the next few weeks and we are looking to organise a ’help-desk’ for students and parents after half-term to

help resolve any ICT problems you may have.

Booked up ‘Booked up’ is a national programme run by the

Booktrust and support by the DCSF to encourage and support reading for pleasure by provid-ing a free book from a list of

specially selected titles to every year 7 student in England.

Our year 7 students, with the help of the librarian, Mrs

Trombley, selected a title from the list and received their

chosen book in a year assembly in October.

Happy reading!

Congratulations to the following students who achieved an A* or A in their June maths module exam.

This module counts as 18% towards their overall GCSE grade.

A* - Jessica Beard A* - Jade Edwards

A* - Dominic Mathuse

A- Hamina Aktar A - Farhiya Ali

A - Stephanie Cheung A - Oliver Cush

A - Stephanie Goulei A - Kirsty Jones A - Aaron Ketley

CONGRATULATIONS

A - Kirsty Jones A - Aaron Ketley

A - Aaron McGregor A - Jack Savage A - Deng Haoliang

School photographs were taken on Friday 24th October 2008.

The photographers will kindly donate 25% of all sales to the year 11

prom fund.

SCH

OO

L P

HO

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Please ask the checkout operator for the ‘Let’s grow’ vouchers and hand

them into Mrs Cartwright on reception.

Do you shop at Morrisons?

As we approach the end of our first half-term of the year there is much for us to be proud of as a school. Attendance Last year our attendance improved from 84% to 90%. This was excellent and was a contributory factor to the best ever exam results the school achieved for the year 9 and year 11 learners. So far, for this half-term, out attendance has continued to improve and we are currently achieving 93%. This is really pleasing and I must thank you as parents/carers for the support you provide in helping us achieve this. I want to also applaud the continued hard work of our attendance team, heads of year, learning mentors and form tutors in helping to raise our school attendance. It is a real team effort where we all have a part to play. Ethos At Kings Norton High School we pride ourselves on being a safe environment where respect for others is paramount and unacceptable behaviour will be challenged in a supportive and professional way. As with any school there are occasions when some of our learners choose to behave inappropriately. With our robust ‘Steps for Success’ system we have made huge improvements in the standard of behaviour in our school. Unfortunately though there are times when a learner’s behaviour warrants an exclusion whether fixed

and a rewarding end to the academic year. It may seem a long way off but it will come around very quickly. We are hoping to subsidise some of these activities depending on the learner’s level of attendance, attainment and behaviour. More details will follow. Review Day Pastoral review day is coming up on Thursday 27th November and it is a chance for you to meet your child’s form tutors. The arrangements for this day will be issued over the next few weeks. Thank you once again for your support in this first half-term and encourage your child to have another successful term by way of attendance and achievement when they return from a hopefully enjoyable holiday! Have a good half-term. Roger Punton, deputy head

ALL THINGS PASTORAL …..

school. Unfortunately though there are times when a learner’s behaviour warrants an exclusion whether fixed term or permanent. This half-term we have excluded two students on a fixed term basis. This was because their behaviour was affecting the learning of other students in our school. Laptops As you will be aware it is an exciting time for key stage 3 students with the arrival of laptops. Please could you reinforce safe practices, not only in carrying them to, from and in school but also that they should not be used to send inappropriate messages to each other. Unfortunately we have heard of one or two instances when students have been emailing each other inappropriately outside of school. Uniform As you may know, the standard of uniform speaks volumes about a school. This half-term we have had a real blitz on uniform and jewellery. Student are only allowed one silver or gold plain stud per ear and no rings. Visitors to the school have commented on how smart our learners look and have been really impressed with the lack of jewellery! Summer Activities Finally we are looking at introducing two activity days at the end of the summer term where students will have the opportunity to participate in a number of on and off-site activities. These should be a great opportunity

Ride a bike to

school? Don’t

forget your hemet!

Our year 11 learners, as part of their GCSE citizenship coursework, have organised a Harvest Festival collection and have asked for the support of other years in this good cause by way of non-perishable donations (preferably tins). The food donations will be packaged into small hampers and donated to worthy causes. To help us identify homes for the hampers, we are also asking learners and parents to nominate individuals and/or groups that would appreciate this

help during the winter months. Our year 11 learners will be packaging and distributing the hampers after the half term break. We would like to thank everyone in advance for their generous donations and nomination forms.

Harvest Festival

It has been a busy start to the year for the school council. In the first weeks of term, elections were held during form time to elect two rep-resentatives from each form group. In some rooms the elections were very closely fought but the following students won democratically and will represent their forms for the year. Year 7: Keilo Brown, Brandon Thomas, Shannon Beckett-Smith, Chad

Newton, Brandon Karim and Danny Burrows

School Council

Newton, Brandon Karim and Danny Burrows Year 8: Josh Young,, Ionie Luke, Reece Furley, Chelsea-Ann Rentema Year 9: Amy Thompson, Shannon Cotterill-Gibson, Tom Clarke, Billy

McLoughlin, Heather Mottram, Jason McPike, James Thrupp and Norma Andrews

Year 10: Keely Young, Jess Jenkins, Ramazan Ali, Jenneika Francis,

Steven Paul, Nick Harris, Jack Woodward, Adele Hunkins-Beckford.

Year 11: Jessica Beard, Callie Cooper, Stephanie Goulei, Farhiya Ali,

Claire Moy and Denise Worth. The elected representatives set to work right away. In their first meeting the council suggested water fountains for pupils and outside picnic benches and discussed how to further improve the learning culture in the school. To help these projects move forward the council will be electing an Executive Committee of three key stage 4 students to organise the council and liaise with the school staff. There are cur-rently five candidates up for election, Callie Cooper, Nick Harris, Keely Young, Jess Beard and Ramazan Ali. Each candidate will be making an election speech before the vote on Thursday 23rd October. Good luck to all the candidates.

School Council

On Tuesday 14th and Wednesday 15th October, Ted Lublin (Pastor of the local church) returned to our school to give another hair-raising assembly about the work that he, and other people from the Kings Norton/Northfield area, carried out in Uganda. I am sure that all learners and staff remember Ted’s first school assembly back in July, when he presented an inspirational assem-bly to both KS3 and KS4. In that presentation Ted gave us a small, but shocking, glimpse into the life of young children in Uganda – from the violence of Rebel forces and the lack of food, to the poor state of education and life changes.

In that memorable assembly, Ted Lublin also explained that, during the summer weeks, he and some other locals would be travelling to Uganda to help rebuild the local primary school which had been destroyed. The learners reacted to this very positively and raised money through a non-uniform day and also sent out some school resources to the school in Uganda. In Ted’s return assembly he presented a powerful and moving documentary of his time in Uganda. Through his video we learned how the money and resources raised by KNH and other local schools and businesses has been used to help children who have suffered a great deal. We got another glimpse into the lives of children in Uganda and we learned that the majority of them only have one meal per day and walk to school in their bare feet.

Ted Lubin’s Return from Uganda

we learned that the majority of them only have one meal per day and walk to school in their bare feet. The work done thus far has been excellent, but as Ted said in his assembly “There is still much to do”. So the question has to be - what can KNH do to help further this cause in the run up Christmas? All suggestions gratefully received! Mr S McCay

“The assembly was really good - I

think that it is excellent and inspiring that these people gave up their own time to help those most in need” Jack Owuodzie:(Year 10)

“It is about giving not taking away – I like that” Brandon Karim (Year 7)

“It made me realise how lucky I really am – they didn’t even have proper classrooms, shoes or food” Ryan Dalrymple (Year 10)

“I feel sorry for what happened to them because I believe no child should go through anything like that and they should all have a right to an education” Keely Young (Year 10)

The current overall attendance for Kings Norton High School is over 93% which meets the target set by the local authority for Birmingham and exceeds the one set for our school. There are 235 students in school at present with attendance over 95% which is a strong foundation for achievement and future success. Well done everyone! As part of the ‘Wise Up’ attendance initiative we will be sending letters to parents after half term. It is important that you check your child’s attendance for the first half term and see how it is rated according to the ‘Wise Up’ levels. If they are doing well please congratulate them. If they are not the best performers do not despair but try to help them improve their attendance and also catch up on missed work. If

ATTENDANCE

We are pleased to welcome Mr Yi Lin Dong and Mrs Rute Moura Mr Yi Lin Dong and Mrs Rute Moura Mr Yi Lin Dong and Mrs Rute Moura Mr Yi Lin Dong and Mrs Rute Moura onto the Kings Norton High School governing body following the call for nominations in September. We still have one vacancy to fill. If you are interested , please contact the clerk to the governing body on 0121 459 4451.

PARENT GOVERNORS

not despair but try to help them improve their attendance and also catch up on missed work. If you need advice or help please talk to us. Your first point of con-tact are the head of year, learning mentor or the attendance team. We are also setting targets for students each term which will hopefully encourage competition and lead to further improvement. The best attenders will be entered in attendance draws and receive rewards. I look forward to your support and hope that your children will benefit from their time in school. Mrs E Tencheva, Attendance Manager

7th November

Pink prizes for the best form and the best pink outfit. Pink prizes for the best form and the best pink outfit. Pink prizes for the best form and the best pink outfit. Pink prizes for the best form and the best pink outfit.

Please note: all nonPlease note: all nonPlease note: all nonPlease note: all non----pink items of clothing pink items of clothing pink items of clothing pink items of clothing must be standard uniformmust be standard uniformmust be standard uniformmust be standard uniform

must be standard uniformmust be standard uniformmust be standard uniformmust be standard uniform