Every Tuesday after school,3:00pm - 4:00pm with Becky

and Donna in the LSB.

Dates for your Diary Monday 3rd September Training day, no pupils in school

Tuesday 4th September Year 7 in school,

Year 11 in school for work experience

Wednesday 5th September Year 8, 9, 10 in school— 8.45 am Year 11 start work experience

Friday 14th September Year 11 last day of work experience

Wednesday 19th September Open evening 6-8 pm- school as normal

Thursday 20th September Open morning 10—12noon—school as normal

Friday 28th September Training day—no pupils in school

Wednesday 10th October Year 11 world of work day

Friday 19th October Newsletter published

Monday-Friday 22nd—26th October Half-term

Summer Sizzler

The Summer Sizzler Event took place on the

6th July at Kings Norton Children’s Centre.

Pupils from Kings Norton High helped create

summer and aquatic creations for the event.

Thanks to all the pupils who took part and

especially artSites for their help with the

event.

Page 2

New Security Information

Page 3

EAZ Celebrate Excellent

school attendance

Page 4

Yr 11 Prom

Page 5

Meet your new Parent

Support Worker

Page 6

Science Space Trip

Page 7

Colette’s Column

Page 8

Year 9 Awards

Page 9

Drayton Manor

Page 10

Dates for your Diary

THE END OF A HIGHLY

SUCCESSFUL YEAR

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Exams The last two years have seen a significant rise in examination results here at Kings Norton High School and this year will be no different. We are set once again to achieve over 50% 5 A* - C grades at GCSEs. Last year we were third nationally in the government’s list of the ‘top one hundred most improved schools’ published by the Guardian newspaper – and top in Birmingham! Other successes recognised by Ofsted in their May visit Behaviour was graded as good and punc-tuality has improved greatly. Next year we hope to improve our attendance even further with the help of our biometric registration system about which you will receive a letter along with this publication. Health, safety and other changes Our CCTV system has been really effective in making students feel secure, and we are installing the final few cameras over the summer holidays. Lockers too have meant that students have not had to carry coats and heavy bags around school all day. The effect of this has been that they have looked much smarter in their uniforms minus their outer wear. Talking of which, the new uniform comes into effect officially in September. The black sweatshirt and the white or black polo shirt, both with the school badge, are compulsory for the new academic year, and are available from Clive Mark or Colliers. They will allow students to keep cool but stay smart. When students return in September, they will find new ICT rooms springing up around the school to give them greater access to independent learning

opportunities and the chance to use internet resources for projects, homework and coursework. They will also find a very similar group of staff – very few are leaving us this year so next year will be a sea of familiar and I hope friendly faces! Friends of KNHS I would like to reinstate the parent/teacher organisation which once existed at the High School so that staff and students may meet on social occasions rather than just on parents’ consultation days or evenings. On our target-setting day, we will be asking you if you think this would be a good idea. Academy It would seem that the Birmingham academies programme is going ahead and we should expect to become an academy in the near future. It is likely that we will be declared an academy while still in our current building, then we will move into the new one as soon as it is built. It is still early days so I will keep you informed as developments present themselves. May I wish you a fabulous summer and if you are looking for a secondary school for a child in September 2008, please come and see us on open evening on Wednesday 19th September.

Denise Burns Headteacher

June—July 2007

As part of the school’s drive to keep your child safe at the school, we have introduced some useful initiatives and technology over the last couple of years. This has included an extensive CCTV network and secure single point of entry to school.

These have supported the updated pastoral policy in reducing bullying and unaccept-able behaviour. We know this from the results of our recent student questionnaire, the Ofsted inspection and our local authority visits. However, we must continue to improve our systems to ensure that all students attend and are safe. Therefore to improve our attendance monitoring we will be shortly introducing a ‘biometric registration system’.

This cutting-edge technology will allow us to tell what time students arrive to school and then it will register where your child is each and every lesson – including the time they arrived. It will also allow the school to inform you by e-mail, text or phone when your child has not arrived or is late to school, thus alerting you to any mishap or requesting your parental ‘note’ for absence by reply.

For this to happen, each teaching room will have a registration unit and when students arrive at the lesson they will simply need to have their thumb or finger scanned. Please don’t be concerned – it is not a fingerprint. The biometric device simply measures tem-perature differences due to ridges on the skin. The device then stores this information as a 48 digit code (just a set of numbers and letters really). This 48 digit code is then converted again to a 300 digit code for security. In other words, if anyone ‘hacked’ into our system, they would find no fingerprints or information related to your child – just a list of seemingly random numbers not connected with any child’s identity.

The units log when your child arrives at the lesson with 1 second accuracy so this will ensure that our registers are 100% accurate. To support this system in September, we will ask you to update our records with contact telephone numbers, mobile numbers and, where possible, e-mail addresses.

I am sure that this new system will give you peace of mind knowing that the school can monitor your child’s attendance in this detail. We would be really grateful to hear what you think of it and will invite you to put forward any views at target-setting day on Thurs-day 19th July.

Keeping your child safe at Kings Norton High School

School Begins on...

New year 7 start on Tuesday 4th September at 8.45 am.

Year 11 are to be in school on Tuesday 4th September at 11.30 am for

work experience briefing in the hall with Mr Henderson and form tutors.

Years 8, 9 and 10 start on Wednesday 5th September at 8.45 am.

On the17th July, Kings Norton High enjoyed a day out at Drayton

Manor. Apart from the weather everyone, pupils and staff, had a

great time…..

Year 9 End of Year Awards

The efforts of many year 9 students were

acknowledged in their end of year

awards ceremony.

It has been a busy year for the whole

group with SATs examinations

completed and option choices decided

upon.

Pupils nominated for awards were

presented with certificates and gift

vouchers. The biggest winners on the

day were Jessica Beard and Stephanie

Goulei for achievement across all sub-

jects and Aaron Ketley and Sarah

Stevenson for their services in

representing the year group.

On Monday 9th July, 30 pupils from Kings Norton High School - all with 100% attendance, less than three late marks during the academic year or improving on their last year’s attendance by 10% or more - were invited to attend the Kings Norton Education Action Zone’s 4th annual cele-bration of excellent school attendance at the Council House in Bir-mingham. The celebration took place in the Banqueting Suite at the Council House where pupils were presented with a certifi-

cate in recognition of their excellent achievement by the Deputy Lord Mayor and Deputy Lady Mayoress.

Councillor Les Lawrence, Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Families said, “Pupils, staff and parents at school have all worked extremely hard to raise at-tainment, improve behaviour and increase school attendance. Meeting the Deputy Lord Mayor is a memorable way to celebrate the positive contribution the pupils have made to their own development”. Kings Norton Education Action Zone, who work with eleven schools in the Kings Norton area in raising standards of attainment, be-haviour and attendance, would like to con-gratulate all the pupils invited to the Council House on their excellent achievement. High School staff would recognise the achievement of the students and send their congratulations to:

Norma Andrews Aaron McGregor Jeff Horton Jed Astbury Rutendo Nembaware Hannah Lewis Rhian Brookes Kane O’Toole Sean O’Neill Christopher Danks Jack Owudodzie Jack Savage Lucinda Edwards Cherise Sterling Kakra Serwaa Matthew Hambly Aaron Butler Panin Serwaa Sarah Inns Mark Carpenter Amy Thompson Jack Ashton Kelly-ann Coggins Adeel Gohar David Carpenter Paul Connor Kevin Dzwonoswki Nathan Dewell Lee Dewell Emma McGann

Kings Norton’s Education Action Zone’s

Celebration of Excellent School Attendance

Congratulations Year 11

On July 22nd 2007 at Rowheath Pavillion in Bournville, Year 11 Pupils joined together

with staff in celebrating reaching the end of their education at Kings Norton High. The

event was a resounding success filled with tears, laughter and dancing.

We wish you all every success in your future,

Hello and welcome to Colette’s column. Just in case you don’t know who I am I shall intro-

duce myself, I’m Colette Hayes, the catering manager in the school kitchen.

There have been a lot of changes in the past year (me working in this school for one!!) new

menu’s, new guidelines and new products and it’s all thanks to Jamie Oliver.

All these changes have been for the better alhough some pupils may not agree, but in the

past few months more and more of you have been coming and using the service I provide

so we must be doing something right.

From September there will be even more changes so be prepared and a little bit excited

please—I know I am!

BREAKFAST club will continue in September between 8.15 – 8.45am (It’s sometimes even

8.00 am on a good day) so please start your day the right way.

We will have NEW

• drinks including Innocent smoothies!!

• products at morning break.

• Menu— a salad bar, a wrap bar (Not music I’m afraid) and Panini’s will be available.

Can it get any better???

Yes – I will be providing taster sessions for you lucky pupils and starting a ‘Kings Norton

High Consumer Group’. This group will discuss food and especially food served in the

school kitchens. We will discuss menus, new guidelines and any ideas or comments you

may have. I would like to take this opportunity to invite any pupils, parents or guardians to

join this group. If you are interested please contact me on 0121 459 4451 in September .

Looking forward to seeing you all in the new term as I know you won’t want to miss a thing.

Colette Hayes – Catering Manager

Kings Norton High School’s Construction department would

like to thank Wicks Ltd Stirchley branch for the material they

have donated to our course. We are always grateful for any

building materials for pupils to work with. Wicks so far have

provided paints and wallpaper for decorating.

Richard Benham

Head of Vocational Education

Big Thank You to Wicks

Year 9 Land At The National Space Centre

25 Year 9 students had a slightly different end to last half term due to their working

hard and making good progress in science lessons throughout the year. As a

reward for their efforts they were treated to an all-expenses paid visit to the

National Space Centre in Leicester.

On arrival, the students spent time

exploring the Space exhibits and

carrying out a number of interactive

Space travel training exercises.

This was followed by a presentation

in the Planetarium about our solar

system. They all managed excellent

scores for the interactive quiz

questions!

The main activity of the day was to take part in an extended mission simulation

which involved sending a manned spacecraft to one of Mars’ moons and back.

Once the students had been briefed and roles assigned, they split into two teams—

one team was in mission control and the other team on the spacecraft.

All students were kept busy on tasks such as plotting courses, practical monitoring

of life support systems and the crew, analysing space rocks, radiation shields and

data and constructing equipment. There were also a few, unexpected life

threatening emergencies to deal with and the two and a half hours literally flew by.

The success of the mission was a result of the skills and application of the students

and the way they learned to work

under pressure as teams.

As well as being a memorable day

out, this experience helped to show

the students some of the

applications of science and

technology in real life situations.

Hopefully this will encourage them

to work hard on the GCSE science

course they have now started.

All who took part were a great credit to themselves and families, as well as being

excellent ambassadors for Kings Norton High School.

Thank you to the staff who made this visit possible, in particular to Mr. Plumb.

See you

then

The ICT staff would like to thank the year 10 and year 11 students

who have worked so hard over the last two years to complete

coursework and achieve their GNVQ ICT.

We are awaiting results day with growing anticipation and hope to be

able to share in your celebrations when you open your results

envelopes on 23rd August 2007.

Year 10 GNVQ students please remember its your results day

too!

You need to come into school on 23rd August to collect your ICT

results envelope and receive your certificates.

Fingers Crossed for ICT Results

Your new Parent Support Worker

Hello, I’m Sara Turner, your new Parent Support Worker for Kings Norton High! Some

of you will have already met me in school at the 4th July induction evening, but don’t

worry if you were unable to make it, or you didn’t have the chance to grab hold of me,

there will be lots more opportunities! My desk is located in room 2-6 and I will be work-

ing closely with Year 7 Head Lindy Thompson coordinating events days/evenings and

liaising with as many different members of school as is possible. I hope to bridge gaps

between school, parents, and students, primarily trying to encourage you into school. I

would like to promote opportunities for parents as second time learners, and I'm also

hoping to arrange a drop-in service for parents, where we can have an informal confi-

dential chat with Tea/Coffee/Biscuits to find out what you and your child’s needs are

and how best to help with them. If you have any queries, or ideas and links to any agen-

cies that could help me make some connections, please come and see me, email, or

give me a call at school on ext 264! My hours at present are flexible, but these are the

days and times I am generally here;

Mon 12.30-2.30, Tues 11.30-2.30, Thurs 9.00-1.00

Look out for further information in the near future, updating

you about action for Parent Support. You can also pass on

messages to me in school through Lindy Thompson or

Jenni Ralph, if I am not here at a time you wish to talk,

and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

I look forward to meeting you all,

Warm Regards,

Sara Turner

Parent Support Worker