FROM YOUR HEAD TEACHER

Dear Parents and Carers,

What a busy week it's been!

The sports fixtures have yielded some excellent results and we certainly have some talented competitors who have great potential in representing TKA across the Borough and nationally.

Our status as a Google school is one we are very proud of and my thanks to our pupil ambassadors who, with Mr Smith, showcased our innovative approaches to digital learning at the BETT exhibition on Wednesday.

As you may know we have an annual school production and this year it is Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. We are lucky to have the partnership with Kingston College and perform at their Arthur Cottrell theatre. Rehearsals have started and a rehearsal schedule will be available on the website as we have over 50 pupils involved in both acting, music design, lighting and stage management. Tickets for the production will be available very soon.

Whilst we have much to celebrate with regards to pupil participation and achievements, I will be speaking to all pupils on Monday morning regarding our expectations on behaviour, attendance and punctuality. I will also be writing to you as parents separately to reiterate why we have such high expectations.

My time spent with OfSTED these past two days has only served to underline what I already know to be true. Schools where pupils thrive and achieve greatly are those that start from the position of having excellent behaviour, attendance and punctuality. The vast majority of pupils do behave exceptionally well at TKA. Many pupils also have good rates of attendance and punctuality. I still want us to strive together for even better behaviour and more consistent attendance and punctuality rates. I'm certain that you will support us with this.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,

Sophie Cavanagh
Head Teacher

Upcoming Dates for your diary

Year 7 A2 Assessment Week - Monday 6th to Friday 10th February

Year 8 Disco - Thursday 9th February 6-8pm in the School Hall

February Half term holiday - Monday 13th - Friday 17th February 2017

Year 8 A2 Assessment Week - Monday 20th to Friday 25th February

World Book Day - Thursday 2nd March - Pupils and staff to dress as literary character

GLOBAL NEWS - CHINESE NEW YEAR

On Monday our Mandarin pupils, led by Ms Jang, delivered an assembly on Chinese New Year. The pupils informed us about the twelve Chinese Zodiac signs and interesting facts about China. Those pupils who answered the quiz questions correctly received a red envelope filled with chocolates - a colour considered lucky in China!

SPOTLIGHT on STEM

Last Friday, five Year 7 pupils went over to our neighbours at Fern Hill Primary School to help run their annual Maths Week. Abrielle, Sam C, Chloe P, Francisco and Bibi were each allocated to a class in Years 1, 3 and 4 to support the young pupils in their learning.

The Fern Hill teachers reported that our TKA pupils had done a superb job of getting stuck in, not needing any direction to seek out the pupils who needed help and encouragement most.

Secondary schools often miss out on the opportunity to collaborate with primary colleagues, but this is just the latest event in the ever-growing partnership between TKA and Fern Hill. We have already delivered masterclasses in Science and Mathematics for pupils in Years 5 and 6, with collaboration between the English departments in the pipeline.

Mr Deveson.

OUR CROSS COUNTRY STAR

Our cross country competitors have performed superbly this week.

Firstly, congratulations to Jake H (7Cr) for coming 24th out of 82 runners in last Saturday's Borough championships which puts him only 4 positions off being in the Surrey Elite. Congratulations to Sophia L (Si), pictured above, for also coming an impressive 37th out of 83 runners in the Under 14 Borough championships.

TKA victorious over Hollyfield

On Tuesday 24th January, the year 7 and 8 netball team played some matches against Hollyfield school. We played 4 quarters, with Hollyfield having a strong start with 3 goals and 1 goal from us in the first quarter for the Year 8s. Within the 2nd quarter we caught up, scoring 2 goals: one by Mariam and one by Amy. Then, in the last 2 quarters, we scored another 5 goals; with Hollyfield on 6 goals we won by 8-6, Mariam scoring 4 and Amy scoring 4.

The player of the match was Alys, who played centre for Year 8, intercepting the ball countless times to help us gain possession. The whole year 8 team made a great effort and the people in the team were Mollie, Alys, Amy, Mariam, Sophia and Sravya.

Year 7 drew with Hollyfield’s year 7 team, scoring 3-3: the player of the match was Ire. The Year 7s did very well for their first match and the team was: Alice, Ire, Tilly, Amelie, Jolie, Mia and Leah.

Year 8 were very proud of their first win and the Year 7s were also proud of their draw in their first match.

Amy A - Sports Captain

PSHE Day

Yesterday, all Year 8 pupils had an SRE (sex and relationship education) session where we were told about what is right and wrong. First, we labelled the reproductive body parts which we did accurately.

We also focused on what was most important to learn about in terms of SRE and we numbered them (1 = Most important, 5 = Least important). Some examples of what the sheet said were: sexual orientation, contraception and assertiveness skills. We also worked in single sex groups where we could talk about issues honestly.

For the last session we watched a video about making decisions and sexual consent. For example, if somebody doesn’t want tea, you don’t make them tea. If they do want tea and you make them the tea but later on they change their mind, you just leave it out for them in case they would like some. The same thing occurs with sex, a very serious matter.

By Teju, Johanna, Ismail and Jibril

BETT Show 2017

The BETT 2017 show was amazing! BETT stands for: British Education and Training Technology.

When we first arrived we saw our Asus stand and it had all the new Chromebooks and the Windows 10 computers. One of the computers had 16 GB ram which made it incredibly fast. During our break we were allowed to walk around the stands. The first one we saw was the Firefly stand and we got a goody bag which had sweets, posters and stickers.

Microsoft was one of our favourite stands by far because they had Minecraft on the PCs and the Macs. We also had a Minecraft picture taken at the stand.The STEM stands were also the best, there were a range of things to see from the smallest of tech to the fastest of model cars.

There was also a very useful piece of animation software called Plotagon. This is an easy animation software to help you animate real life scenes. The Samsung stand was great because it had lots of virtual reality headsets which was very cool. They also had ultrawide 4k monitors which could be connected to any PC or mac via HDMI. You could even connect it to a Xbox or a PS4.

Mr Smith did a great presentation to explain to people how Asus Chromebooks are used at our school and everyday life.

We met two YouTubers! One of them had 3,000 subscribers and his name was Solly; he even gave us special wrist bands with his channel on them. The other one had 48,000 subscribers and his name is Adam Clarke and best known as Wizard Keen on his channel.

By Tom, Nick, Henry and Robert.

SAINSBURYS VOUCHERS

Please start collecting Active Kids vouchers from Sainsbury's from 25th January. In Sainsbury's Local stores you will get one voucher for every £5 you spend. Every time you shop in a Sainsbury's Supermarket you will be given one voucher for every £10 you spend. You can also collect them when you shop online at sainsburys.co.uk. There will be a collection box in Pupil Services. Thank you!

ATHLETICS

On Wednesday 26th of January 2017, 15 year 7s took part in an athletics competition at Chessington Community College with Mr Lockett.

We took part in: Shot put, Long jump, Triple jump, Vertical Jump, 2 lap race, 4 lap race, 6 lap race, 8 lap race and many relays. We competed against Chessington Community College, Holyfield, Surbiton High, Richard Challoner, Southborough and Holy Cross - tough competition!

We came 5th overall and 1st in two events: Shot Put (which Ire won) and the 6 lap race (which Arthur K won).

The lucky year 7s that went were: Archie H, Ire, Eddie P, Megan J, Tilly C, Amelie, Arthur, Jaydon, Alice D, Laurence H, Leah Y, Yousuf, Ryan G,Alara T and Clara F.

By Tilly (7Cr) and Archie (7Ti)

CHARITY FOOTBALL MATCH

On Thursday the Year 8s took on the Year 7s in a fundraising football match.

Year 7 scored early on in the first half but the Year 8s certainly tested their defence. The final score was 3-0 to the Year 7s.

Thanks to all the supporters who braved the cold to support our minibus fund and to Mr Lockett who co-ordinated this.

HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY

As part of Holocaust Memorial Day, Year 8 pupils have done some work in their Humanities lessons this week to find out more about this day. Of the many responses from pupils, this poem reflects the thoughts and reactions of TKA pupils.

Horrible things happened to innocent people
Over six million Jews were killed
Lives, innocent lives were lost
Over eleven million people died overall
Countless people helped, yet lots of people didn't
And now we have a memorial day
Useful knowledge is gained
So people should not repeat this event
The Holocaust is something that should not be forgotten nor repeated

By Mariam (8 Th)

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The Kingston Academy · The Kingston Academy · Richmond Road · Kingston Upon Thames, London KT2 5PE · United Kingdom