Page 2

• KNHS Do the Oscars!

Page 3

• Year 9 Pupils Win Citywide Competition

Page 4

• Visit to Soho

Road Gurdwara

• C o l e t t e ’ s Column

Page 5

• Comic Relief

• Spot the Ball Page 6

• ‘Your Choice on the Road’

• Mu c h A d o About Nothing

• Dates for your Diary

Page 7

• Uniform Advert

• I C T GNVQ News

• GCSE Exam C e r t i f i c a t e s From 2006

Page 8

• Sports News

• Spot the Ball answer

February– March 2007

HAPPY EASTER AND

HAPPY HOLIDAYS! MOCK INSPECTION Last week we invited a team of local authority advisers to come into school and give us a sort of ‘mock’ Ofsted inspec-tion. It was very successful: they described our children as excellent ambassadors for the school. Overall, we were judged to be ‘an improving school’. Behaviour was judged to be good and was seen as a growing strength of the school. It was a really useful exercise which has helped us to prepare for the real thing. NEW UNIFORM – ON SALE IN SCHOOL ON TRAINING DAY – 16

TH APRIL

As you know, we are updating our school uniform as a direct result of the discussion and voting organised by School Coun-cil. Although, the new sweatshirt and polo will be our official uniform in the new academic year, it can be worn from this summer term onwards if desired. So could you please support the school by ensuring that your child wears either the old full uniform with shirt and tie, or the full new uniform with official logos on both the sweatshirt and polo for this coming term. Of course, year eleven are not expected to wear the new uniform, but to keep up high standards of their current school wear. STUDENT QUESTIONNAIRE In our last newsletter I stated that we would report back on the results of the student questionnaire this issue. Please see some very positive results on the graph and table inside. With regard to behaviour, over 70% of the students say that behaviour is improving, with a similar number stating that their behaviour is good. The school has come a long way in the past couple of years and this evidence supports this judge-ment.

Continued on page 2

KNHS Do the Oscars! On Thursday 8th March, year 8 pupils experienced the Oscars for their drama murder mysteries. Mr Findlay, drama teacher, arranged this magnificent event to encourage the kids and give them confidence. This production took place in the drama studio. The audiences’ atten-dance was brilliant and the plays were sensational. There were twists and humour; there was a smile on every-one’s face. All 6 plays had the audi-ence on the edge of their seats. The highlight of the evening was when the pupils got awards for their efforts and outstanding performances. These are the well deserved winners:- Best Actress – Jessica Jenkins

Best Actor – Callum Bird Best Supporting Actress – Alice Sea-man Best Supporting Actor – Nathan Dewell Most Effort – Nathan Geoghegan Best Play – Wacky Warehouse starring Jessica Jenkins, Leah McLauchlan, Liam Maher, Jack Owuodzie, Marc Desmond and Jack Shingler. The evening was extremely enjoyable and a brilliant treat for cast, crew and audi-ence. Many thanks to every-one who took part and made this a success. By Jessica Beard 9I

Continued from page 1 Secondly bullying, which is a concern to all of us, also came out as exceedingly positive. Almost 85% of students state that they have not been bullied. Again a lot of work has been done with students on this and recently a whole-school anti-bullying charter was agreed by the stu-dent council. Hannah Inns and Lucy McLauchlan won the poster competition to show the charter and these will now be reproduced and placed into every classroom. An email address has also been created which students will receive on a business card next term 'bullying@kingsnortonhigh.bham.sch.uk'. Over 85% also felt safe in school. It was also encouraging to note only a small percentage had been the subject of rac-ist abuse. A couple of areas which we as a school are in the process of highlighting and developing are rewards and praise and

the issue of homework. Although over 50% felt they were praised when they have worked well, this for us is not high enough. We will be reviewing our re-wards process early next term. Although years 7 and 8 have been receiving termly awards, this needs to be pro-moted throughout the school. Only just under 70% thought that they got plenty of homework. Again home-work is currently being addressed through the faculties and a new policy will be introduced later this year. Please take the time to look at the ques-tionnaire. We have compared the ‘true’ and ‘mostly true’ with the ‘hardly true’ and ‘not true’ to come to our judge-ments. Should you wish to discuss any of the findings, please don't hesitate to contact us at school. Denise Burns

Head Teacher

Stacey Ames, Joanne Herbert and two pupils from The International School won the opportu-nity to work with a graphic designer and the Educa-tion Welfare Service at The Custard Factory in Digbeth. They worked together to design a poster to encourage good attendance at school us-ing the ‘WISE UP’ theme. After a few sessions of fun and hard work the poster design was completed. On 9

th March, they all met

up at H.E Jones Printers in Tysley. All the pupils enjoyed the tour of the printers and saw equip-ment that had been used in the past and right up to the technology used in the present day. Staff ex-plained how they used a method of printing called ‘lithograph’ as their pre-ferred method.

The best part of the tour was at the end when the posters were seen rolling of the printing press! All the pupils enjoyed posing for photos with their poster for a photographer from the Birmingham City Council newspaper the Forward where the pupils have already been fea-tured! Look out for the poster as it will soon be displayed around the city.

STOP PRESS!!! The Education Welfare Service have been ap-proached by Central News as they are inter-

ested in the competition – so watch out as you might see the girls on a televi-sion near you soon!!!! What is ‘WISE UP’? Pupils are required to at-tended school for 190 days a year. Their atten-dance and punctuality target is over 90+%.

• Gold – attendance above 97% - they are wised up.

• Silver – attendance is 95+% - they are getting wise.

• Bronze – atten-dance is 90+% - could be wiser.

• Red – attendance is between 80-90% - need to wise up.

• Purple – atten-dance below 80% - wise up and take action NOW! E. Morris Year 9 Learning Mentor

Year 9 Pupils Win Citywide Competition!

What does this really mean?

Attendance in one school year

Equals absent days Which is approximately weeks absent

Means number of lessons missed

95% 9 days 2 weeks 50 lessons

90% 19 days 4 weeks 100 lessons

85% 29 days 6 weeks 150 lessons

80% 38 days 8 weeks 200 lessons

75% 48 days 10 weeks 250 lessons

70% 57 days 11.5 weeks 290 lessons

65% 67 days 13.5 weeks 340 lessons

*Remember pupils who attend less, achieve less*

On the 17th January pu-pils from years 7 and 10 went on a visit to the Gurdwara. The pupils asked “Uncle” a series of questions about their visit.

Q. Can you tell us about Sikh clothing? A. They are comfortable. We wear the 5K’s which are a turban, a bracelet, underwear, a knife and a comb. In Punjabi all these words begin with the letter “K”. Q. Why are you vege-tarians? A. Because we try to re-spect all forms of life on earth. We don’t eat fish, meat or eggs. Q. What is the most difficult thing about following the Sikh re-ligion? A. There is nothing diffi-

cult. Q. How many people live in the Gurdwara? A. The Gurdwara never closes. Q. How many visitors do you get a year? A. Thousands. Q. What language do you speak? A. Punjabi - the language that comes from the land of 5 rivers. Q. What are the Sikh scriptures called? A. Guru Granth Sahib. Q. How many times a day do you pray? A. There is no fixed time but three times per day minimum. Morning, dusk and before bed. We are supposed to remember God in every breath. Q. What jobs do you do in the Gurdwara? A. Every household job. Q. What festivals do you celebrate? A. The birthday of Guru Nanak. The birthday of Guru Govinda Singh.

Visit to Soho Road Gurdwara Colette’s Column

I’m Colette, the catering

manager in the school

kitchen. We have got lots

of new ideas we are using

at the moment while we

wait for the new menu to

arrive. At present we are

providing the option of a

salad bar, new sandwiches

and more choice where hot

food is concerned.

We will also be having a

theme day on 28th March

which will be Italian. There

will be another theme day

on 2nd May, however, the

theme for this day is yet to

be decided so if anybody

has any ideas

please come

and see me.

If any parents or pupils

would like to have a say in

what happens in our kitchen

or have any ideas, please

come and talk to me or you

can pass it on to the stu-

dent council where we will

discuss any ideas that are

put forward.

Colette

Catering Manager

Guess which

of the balls

numbered 1

to 10 is the

real ball!

The answer

is revealed

on the back

page with

the sports

news.

Spot the Ball

As you were all aware Comic Relief Red

Nose Day was celebrated on Friday 16th

March 2006 across the United Kingdom.

Staff at KNHS became involved in raising some money for this celebration. The

staff paid £2 a go at guessing which Comic Relief supporter was hidden be-

hind the special silver Nose in a Red

Nose Day sweepstake.

Due to the kind contributions from the

staff at KNHS, we were able to raise a

total of £64 pounds. This money, along with any other donations will be sent to

the Red Nose Day 2007 account.

Sweepstake winner Mr Moore had the opportunity to win £40, yet he

contributed half of his winnings back into

the Comic Relief Fund. Making our total sweepstake fundraiser total £64 pounds.

For 20p a guess the pupils

were asked to guess the

number of eyeballs in a jar. This raised £26 for

Red Nose Day. The total number of eye-

balls were 214, declaring Nicholas Harris

in year 8 the winner of an Argos voucher

worth £5. Nicholas guessed there were 210 eyeballs, making his guess the near-

est to the accurate amount.

The year 11 catering group sold cakes

and sausage rolls. They worked hard

making their own flaky pastry for the cream horns and sausage rolls and also

made scrumptious fresh cream scones. In total we made £44 which will be sent

to comic relief. Many thanks from Ms

McFarlane, the chef, to the year 11 stu-

dents who put all their efforts into mak-ing this happen, especially Katrina McKe-

own and Sam Coates who sold most of the products.

Comic Relief Staff Guess Who’s Behind the Nose and Raise £64!

Pupil Guessing Games Raise £26!

Catering Group Raise £44!

Much Ado About Nothing

On Wednesday 28th February, year 9 were treated to a shortened performance of William

Shakespeare's play 'Much Ado About Nothing'. As well an exciting change to the school day, the

English Department hope that the performance will have helped pupils to further understand the

play ready for their SATs in May.

The KATCH 22 production team were brilliant and combined modern day soaps with the origi-

nal. The play was very interactive and even some of the staff found themselves performing

with the actors as they mingled with the audi-ence.

The English Department hope that it made things

clearer for year 9 and look forward to some ex-cellent SATs results this year. Finally, I would

like to give a big thank you to all of year 9 for their excellent response and sense of enjoyment

to the performance. Hopefully we can arrange some more performances in the near future.

E. Hammond Head of English

‘Your Choice on the Road’

At the end of last term, year 10 students were fortunate enough to take part in a presentation

called ‘Your Choice on the Road’. The aim of

this session was to hopefully change the atti-tude of drivers on the road and also increase

the awareness of the consequences resulting from traffic collisions involving motor vehicles,

road safety, speeding and drunk driving.

The presentation showed graphic video cover-age of road traffic accidents caused by speed-

ing, drunk driving and joy riding. The majority of year 10 students felt that the presentation

was a very worthwhile and an eye opening experience. This is explained by Amy Jenkins

who saw the presentation.

A. Setchell PAM for year 10

I think that the dying to drive video was good as it teaches people how joy riding can end in such a tragic way. Plus when you see the pictures and what not wearing a seatbelt can do, then I do not think you are going to want to do it again! By Amy Jenkins 10S

Monday 16th April Training Day

Tuesday 17th April Pupils return for Summer Term

Monday 7th May May Bank Holiday

Week beginning 8th May Year 9 SATs week

Week beginning 14th May Year 10 exam week

Week beginning 21st May Year 7 and 8 exam week

Friday 25th May Pupils finish for half term

Monday 4th June Pupils return to school

Dates For Your DiaryDates For Your DiaryDates For Your DiaryDates For Your Diary

New school uniform will be available and on sale in school on Monday 16th April 10 am - 12 noon

Suppliers: Colliers, Northfield and

Clive Mark, Kings Heath ________________________________________________

School term starts Tuesday 17th April

The ICT department would like to congratu-

late a number of year 10 and 11 students who,

as a result of recent exam success, have al-

ready achieved a PASS or above in their

GNVQ ICT.

Students need to gain over 240 points from 6

units of work – 2 external exams and 4 portfo-

lios to achieve a PASS (equivalent to 4 x C’s

GCSE). For a MERIT (equivalent to 4 x B’s

GCSE) they need 360 points. For a DISTINC-

TION (equivalent to 4 x A’s GCSE) they need

480 points.

Our congratulations go to … Year 11 students:

Jonathan Lowdell, Reece Caballero, Daniel M

Harris, Rebecca Ryder, Islam Ahmed, Bradley

Bullimore, Nazma Shabir, Lee Shrimpton, Ra-

chel Bravington, Golnoosh Ardestani, Daniel

Small, Jann Carlo Cera, Tafadzwa Nembaware

and Humza Butt.

Year 10 students:

Rhian Brookes, Kimberley Young, Kirsty Fogg

and Stacey Connor.

For those who have not yet reached their tar-

get

REMEMBER ICT catch-up sessions and Easter

School are available:

Catch-up Sessions

Tuesday 3pm–4pm IT-2 Mrs McShane.

Wednesday 3pm–4pm IT-4 Mr Hornsved.

Thursday 3pm–4pm IT-LT Ms Busby.

Easter School dates to be confirmed – see

your ICT teacher for details.

There are less than 6 weeks (20 ICT hours) to your deadline

ICT GNVQ News

We currently hold GCSE exam certifi-cates from last year. If you have any brothers or sisters who left in 2006 that have not collected their certifi-

cates, please let them know that they

must be collected from the main office and CANNOT be posted! Thank you. A. Bowen

Exams Manager

Sports News

The answer to the spot the ball is ball number 7

Year 8 Girls

Rollerblading

Over the past 6 weeks, the year 8

girls have been taking part in Roller-

blading sessions run by Birmingham

Wheels. The 2 instructors taught

the girls skills and tricks and man-

aged to see an improvement in almost

everyone’s skating ability…including

Mrs Setchell’s and Miss Slater’s!

On the final

week of the

program they

were given

the opportu-

nity to go to

the Birmingham Wheels track in

Saltley, which is the only outdoor

track of its kind in the Country, and

race against the lycra-clad Vinnie

who skates for Great Britain. The

girls all behaved extremely well and

a fun time was had by all.

E. Slater

Girls PE

U15 as at 20.3.07 P W D L F A GD PTS

Lordswood 12 12 0 0 32 2 30 36

Bartley Green 12 8 1 3 16 10 6 29

Kings Norton High 12 4 2 6 9 18 -9 22

Dame Elizabeth

Cadbury 12 4 2 6 8 26 -18 22

St. Thomas

Aquinas 10 3 1 6 5 10 -5 17

Kings Norton Girls

- A 10 3 0 7 11 9 2 16

Kings Norton Girls - B 8 1 0 7 2 8 -6 10

U15 Girls Football The U15’s Birmingham Girls School Foot-ball League is now over. The girls played their last games on Tuesday 20th March against St Thomas Aquinas and Lords-wood. Although both games ended in de-feat the table below shows that we were able to hang onto 3rd place. It unfortunately means they miss out on the Birmingham Girls Schools Champion-ship as only the top 2 teams qualify, but it’s still been an excellent effort from the girls who have shown great commitment and enthusiasm over the past two terms. Well Done! E. Slater Girls PE

The Year 11 Girls Basketball team en-

joyed their most successful season ever,

narrowly missing out on the play offs due to a drawn game when the team

ran out of court time. They missed out on the playoffs by one point having lost

only one game all season.

Well done girls for all your hard work.

D. Lyon PE Teacher

Year 11 Girls Basketball