THE NORTON KNATCHBULL SCHOOL

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2 THE NORTON KNATCHBULL SCHOOL (Founded 1630) Hythe Road Ashford Kent Tel: TN24 0QJ Fax: Headteacher: Ms S. K. Staab, BA, MA, Dip Trans NEWSLETTER SKS/ta/NewsletterJuly2011 Dear parents, carers and students, This has been both an exciting and challenging year for The Norton Knatchbull School and I would like to thank governors, parents and students who have helped to build on the school s strengths and bring about a number of improvements. I would in particular like to thank all our staff for their continued hard work and dedication to the students welfare and achievement. At the beginning of this academic year, I explained my vision for the school: Our overriding aim is to provide an environment in which all students feel supported and inspired to strive for their personal best. We foster a disciplined approach to study and a life-long love of learning. We value community and celebrate diversity. Our students are nurtured to become considerate, confident and well-rounded individuals who make informed and positive life choices, and are therefore equipped to face the challenges of a fast-changing, competitive and increasingly global environment. I would like to take this opportunity to reflect on our progress towards that vision over the past eleven months. The enormous variety of our extra-curricular activities and musical, sporting and multicultural events, together with the astonishing number of students and staff involved in supporting charitable causes, are testimony to the spirit of community and diversity we embrace. I hope you will enjoy reading about our latest adventures in this newsletter. Early on in September we focused on Behaviour for Learning in response to stakeholder views and the last OFSTED report (November 2007). Feedback from parents and staff indicates that our system is now clear, consistent and effective. This can best be measured when looking at the total number of fixed term exclusions. This year, we had to issue 38 days of fixed term exclusion compared to 75 days in the previous academic year, and we also achieved our aim of zero permanent exclusions. Visitors to the school regularly comment on the calm and focused atmosphere they encounter and on the polite and considerate behaviour of our students. We have been working hard to improve our system of Monitoring and Intervention in order to help students to maximise their potential. We have introduced challenging targets for all students and have been able to track their academic progress throughout the year. Students in Year 11 and Year 13 who were in danger of falling substantially below their target grades were offered an academic mentor to support their progress. We also introduced separate grades for Attitude to Learning and Homework, allowing us to make a link between achievement and effort. An explanation of these grades can be found on our website. As a result of these changes, students falling below a satisfactory level have been monitored and supported much more closely by being placed on Subject Report, Pastoral Report or Senior Leadership Report. Our recently appointed Inclusion Manager, Mr Frost, has been working with our team of Learning Support Assistants to ensure that all groups of students including the gifted and talented students and those with additional needs and English as an additional language are well supported and make good progress, and our new system enables him to track those students closely.

3 Parents have commented very positively on these changes and our data projections indicate an upward trend in student achievement for all groups of students. We will be able to evaluate impact fully when we receive our GCSE and A level results in August. Meanwhile, we were delighted to receive a letter from OFSTED in March 2011 to advise us that we would not receive an inspection until the summer of 2012 at the earliest based on our pupils academic performance and attendance. Please visit our website at to read a copy of this letter. Furthermore, earlier this month, we celebrated an excellent set of International Baccalaureate examination results. This year s results are the best the school has had since the programme was first introduced at NKS in 2006, with an average point score of nearly 36 points (out of 45). This is equivalent to (in terms of QCA points) of more than 4 grade A s or 3 A* s at A level. John Grocott and Josh Parton both scored 42 points which equalled the record set last year by David Jasiewicz. All IB students passed the diploma and they are looking forward to taking up university studies at a range of institutions and in a number of disciplines. Many congratulations to our students and a huge thank you to all members of staff who helped to make this happen. Mr Baker, who spearheaded the introduction of the IB in 2006, has worked tirelessly and passionately in his role as IB Co-ordinator and deserves a special mention! We have placed an increased emphasis on raising aspirations and celebrating achievement. We now have Junior and Senior Prize Evenings in order to increase the number of prizes and number of disciplines in which to award them. Improving the school facilities and general environment of the school has been an ongoing project and will continue next year. Last week, we held an Oxbridge Seminar to encourage more students to consider applying to the universities of Oxford and Cambridge and we were very pleased with the number of students and parents who attended this opportunity. We use our website increasingly to advertise the achievements of individuals and groups of students throughout the year. Our Art Department has been excited to be able to expand into different areas of the school to show off the high level of skill that our students possess. I take pride in regularly writing to students who have made an exceptional contribution or who have achieved in an exceptional way. We have reviewed our rewards system with members of our Student Council and will be implementing some changes next year as a result of those discussions. Student Voice has been given a raised profile this year. At Student Council, in addition to reviewing our rewards system, students have been discussing a range of topics such as school facilities; enrichment days; charity efforts; house competitions; school uniform; what makes a good lesson; canteen provision; and many more. They have been pleased to see a number of those ideas put into practice in the course of this academic year. In addition, many more students have relished the opportunity of participating in our interview processes for appointing new staff. Communication is another area which we have endeavoured to improve in response to parental suggestions. We have introduced the Keep Kidz Safe system to allow us to contact parents via or text message to alert them to important issues and events and to reduce paper based communication. Please be sure to let the school know of any changes in your address and mobile telephone number in order to allow for this method of communication to work at an optimum. Our website is currently undergoing a make-over and further development and we are intending to use this increasingly to publish letters and announcements which were previously given to students to take home. When doing so, we will alert parents via and/or text. Finally, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that we have made changes to our pastoral system for next year. Whilst we recognise that our Heads of Year have done an excellent job, they are limited in the number of hours they can give to pastoral care due to their significant teaching commitment. Therefore, governors and I have decided to appoint non-teaching members of staff as Student Support Managers in a full-time pastoral capacity from next year. These members of staff have all received training this term, working alongside the Heads of Year. They are already employed in the school at present and experienced at working with students and parents. They will be working with teachers, form tutors, the Inclusion Manager and the Senior Leadership Team to support all students. Form tutors will remain the first point of contact for any issues you may wish to raise.

4 For your information and future reference, our new Student Support Managers from September will be: Year 7 (and looking after transition and attendance): Miss C Rand Years 8/9 (and running the House System): Miss J Lunn Years 10/11 (and running the Isolation Room and out of lesson detentions): Miss A Pott They will be supported by Mr R Hoyte, Assistant Headteacher/Student Welfare and Wider Personal Development Years 12/13 (and looking after Careers): Mrs N Thompson She will be supported by Mrs S Farrant, Head of Sixth Form They are all very much looking forward to start their new pastoral roles in September. This is also the time to say good-bye and thank you to a number of teaching and non-teaching staff. All of those colleagues have made a much valued contribution to the life of this school and the many outstanding achievements of its pupils. Several of those colleagues have served the school with passion and exceptional commitment for a large number of years and have made an impact that will long be remembered by all those who worked with them. Your sons will all receive a copy of this year s Ashfordian magazine on the last day of term, and I am sure you will enjoy reading the testimonials to those colleagues as much as they will. The Governors and I would like to express our gratitude to all of those leaving and wish them the very best for the future. I wish you all an enjoyable summer break. Susanne Staab

5 Art & Photography Department With the completion of the exams, next came the largest Art and Photography exhibition ever undertaken by the department. Covering nearly twice the normal area and with three times the amount of work to display. It was quite a task. The private view, held in June was a huge success, thank you to everyone that came to celebrate the students hard work. We even got our picture in the paper! Art & Photography Trips Photo: Aaron Parr Year12 In preparation for a trip to Dungeness, Artists Chris Daynes and Karl Terry paid a visit to NKS to run an oil painting workshop with our AS Art students. On the day of the trip Chris and Karl met up with us on the beach in Dungeness offering help and advice to the students. All in all, a great day s landscape painting.

6 The AS Photographers also spent the day at Dungeness exploring the landscape of one of Kent s most distinctive areas, an exhibition is coming soon. July 1 st saw Mrs Rowland take a select group of sixth form to The Turner Contemporary in Margate, for a Master class with their Pro artists. The students experimented with Perspex etching, using a gyroscope, Landscape drawing on balloons, oil painting and finished with a Question & answer session with the artists. Thank you to Alex Clarke who stepped in to be photographer for the day after the press failed to turn up! Year 7 and 9 students will be going to the Stour Valley Arts Centre at Kings Wood. The students will be working with a professional artist exploring drawing and sculpture to help develop their skills for the forthcoming year. Also, our year 9 & 10 will take a trip to the Royal Academy of Arts to see the summer exhibition. Experiencing a major exhibition with its wide range of work on show will help the boys develop their coursework and give them inspiration for the year ahead. Congratulations to A.S Photographer Robyn Crawley for successfully having her work accepted in the Urban Landscape exhibition at the Sidney Cooper Gallery in Canterbury.

7 Mr McCann s Photographer of the month This month is awarded to Darren Pyke in Year 12 for his superb still life photography. Pictures that look so easy to do are often the hardest and most longwinded to produce. Excellent work Darren. New Art Teacher! We are delighted to welcome Mrs Terry to the team this coming September. Mrs Terry was our PGCE student teacher at the beginning of the year and we were so impressed by her we snapped her up as soon as we could. Her work with our Year 7 & 8 boys can be seen on exhibition at the Sidney Cooper Gallery in Canterbury from now until the end of July. Mrs Batt Mrs Batt will be retiring at the end of this academic year. The staff and students would like to thank her for her inspirational and enthusiastic teaching and leadership throughout her time with us. During Mrs Batt s term as Head of Art, the department has grown offering more courses than ever and the quality and diversity of students work has improved tenfold! All at NKS will miss you, in particular the Art staff that have enjoyed every minute of your time with us and we promise to continue with your ethos. Many congratulations to Mrs Rowland for her promotion to Head of Art from September. The department is looking very healthy and with Mrs Rowland at the helm the future looks bright.

8 Last but not least Well done Year 8 for the stunning colour and patterns of these clay plates. Time constraints meant we were unable to display them for long enough. So here they are for all to admire. Design & Technology Robot Challenge Robots are going to run the world, that s what the teacher that ran the robot challenge said. He is a robot expert but the robots that we used in the challenge weren t the sort that are taking people s jobs all over the world instead they were Lego robots but they were still extremely advanced. We sat down at a table in our team to find a mixture of Lego pieces that we would go on to use in our robot. The pieces ranged from basic Lego bricks, to a light and touch sensor. After we had sat down the teacher gave us a basic explanation about the robot and more importantly he gave us our tasks. We had to construct a robot that firstly followed a line and then could guide its way around an object. My team set off on making a robot. We started by fixing some wheels to the brick which controlled the robot, we then attached some other pieces and finally a light sensor. We had to calibrate the light sensor by getting it to take a reading and then we had to give that reading to the teacher who then programmed the robot on his laptop and transferred the program to the robot. Initially we had some problems getting the robot to follow the black line using the light sensor but then we realised that the light coming through the window was affecting it so Nathan came up with the idea of putting some flat bricks on the top of the robot to shade the light sensor we did this and the robot immediately worked and followed the line. The next challenge was far easier as all we had to do was fit a touch sensor to the front of the robot so that it could guide its way around an object. The touch sensor consisted of a long Lego brick that acted as a lever and swung round and hit a small button; this caused the robot to reverse. Shortly after we had

9 finished this and tried it a few times the teacher said that we had run out of time. By the end of the task I felt that I understood a bit more about robots. Wesley O'Callaghan Ottewill Evegate Trip On Tuesday 28 th June, myself and Ms Reeves took a group of year 10 and A level Product Design students to the Ottewill s designers and manufacturer of fine silverware & jewellery based at the Evegate Farm in Smeeth. We were made most welcome by Steve Ottewill and his team. They gave us a wonderful tour of the facility and a real understanding of the materials and processes that they use. They are involved in some amazing projects of great complexity and value. One example is seen in the photograph, they were making a tree in gold, and they had to model the cast in wax in order to ensure that the customer was happy with the outcome prior to making the final piece in gold. Imagine the cost involved in both time and materials! The boys were able to gain a real understanding of the design process and the importance of design work, leading to good quality manufactured products. This trip will become part of the year 10 Product Design Curriculum. Thanks again to Steve Ottewill and his team. Mrs Tomkins University Of Kent: Science Day Creating a Vehicle On the 27 th June 2011, I (and a handful of boys in Year 8) journeyed to the University of Kent in Canterbury. We arrived and were told to wait in the Lecture Room. We were all given stickers with a letter and number. The four people with matching labels were a group. We were told that we were going to be doing a variety of different activities. We were then told that at the end of the day there would be an awards ceremony and that if we did well, we would get an award. The first task was creating a basic vehicle. We were given an electric motor, a battery pack, two elastic bands (one thin and one thick), rods, connectors and a variety of wheels. As soon as we had got past the awkward introductions we quickly got to it. At first, we thought it was easy, but we were proven wrong when our vehicle wasn t moving. We soon found out that the large elastic band we had been using was in fact slowing it down because of the friction it created. We replaced the band and we thought we were okay until we were unable to place the battery pack on the chassis because it would inevitably fall off. We tried to re-think the design, but we found it much easier if I just became the battery monkey and held the battery pack above the vehicle. The student supervising noted out to us that although we were moving, we weren t moving very fast. She said to use the smallest wheel & the larger band to act as the chain on a bike. And, like she had said, we went a lot faster!

10 After our time was up, we had to compete in a race. We came 2 nd - only because of a dodgy pair of crocodile clips!! Declan Purcell 8A Food Tech The awesome team making the epic car The Year 9 boys raised money by selling gingerbread men at break time. This was part of a batch production exercise; the teams of three all worked well and there was a lot of rivalry to see who could raise the most money. The boys were asked to vote on the VLE to select the most popular charity and the first half of the year chose Comic Relief and sold the biscuits for a total of 126 and the second set raised a total of 100 for Cancer Research. As usual it proved to be successful and the boys are to be congratulated. The year 10 GCSE students took their Level 2 Food Hygiene test and 25 boys passed - well done! Ready Steady Cook competition- this popular yearly event took place on 13 th July when 15 students, in teams of three, representing boys from all key stages, took up the challenge to prepare and present a two course meal and drink for the judges to sample. I always ask the panel to be those long serving staff who are either retiring or moving to another school. This year I was lucky to have the splendid team of Dr Gogarty, Mr Chesson and, to keep them on track, Mrs Tate. Unfortunately Mr Baker was too busy to join us (a usual occurrence!). Each house team drew lots for a country and produced s selection of mouth watering dishes. The atmosphere was lovely with plenty of banter and a calm but measured approach to the preparation and choice from the ingredients on each tray. All the boys enjoyed working as a team and were keen to ascertain who the winner was! The results were as follows: Joint 1 st - India Burra and Mexico-Knatchbull -100 points, 3rd-Italian-Apps 96 points,4 th -Chinese-Barratt-93 points and Harper with 65 in total. All the teams are to be congratulated for a super event and a spectacular effort by the tasting panel. Needless to say no evidence remained! Gill Lovelock G Lovelock

11 Spanish Very recently, Mrs Shefford took 20 students to the University of Kent for a Hispanic Language Day, where they enjoyed immersing themselves in the Spanish language and culture. They will be able to share their experiences with their classmates on their return. Currently, Mrs Shefford and Mrs Smith ventured to Barcelona in Spain for a cultural visit with year 9 and 12 students. We look forward to hearing of their experiences in an assembly next year! Two of our Year 10 students relished the opportunity of teaching Spanish language and culture to primary school children at Challock recently. Fenton Christmas and Matthew Dawson prepared a range of activities and were highly commended by Challock Primary School for their efforts. We also hosted six Spanish students in school for the past three weeks. They shadowed pupils in Years 10 and 12IB and were very pleased with the welcome they received. Thank you for having the Spanish students in all of your lessons. They enjoyed the lessons they visited and were very impressed with the all they witnessed going on at school. They have told me that they are learning lots of English and they are even studying new things that they have never learnt, for example in Maths IB! To end, they gave a presentation to all of Year 10 about their experiences at NKS and their impression of life in England. All who saw the presentation were struck by their confidence in making this presentation in a foreign language in front of a large audience. Well done and good luck to them! Bastille Day On Friday 15 th July the whole school participated in Bastille Day celebrations. A wide variety of workshops were on offer and students were able to learn new skills and participate in unusual activities. Speaking to a number of staff they really enjoyed participating in the activities. Students loved the day because it was cool and different and good fun. When walking round the school one could sense a purposeful yet relaxed atmosphere. A massive THANK YOU to Madame Jeffryes for masterminding this excellent day, and to all staff who prepared and ran activities. LiNKS go to Delft. After a huge effort in raising the needed money paid off, although it was only some substantial lastminute sponsorship from BAe Systems, University of Kent and FONKS that secured our passage, the LiNKS team spent three days of the Whitsun holiday at the Delft Technology University in the Netherlands. At half-past five in the morning on Thursday 2 nd June we left school for a 5 ½ hour drive to Delft. We arrived in gorgeous sunshine and found our campsite (we were one of only 3 teams that were also camping to keep the costs down). After an unexpected provided lunch, we quickly set-up our pit area with our display boards and robot mission field. Once again we realised quite quickly that maybe we hadn t stepped up our game quite as much as we should - something we have put down to a lack of experience. Many of our competitors displays would not have looked out of place in a professional exhibition and had obviously cost hundreds of pounds to put together. With 67 teams present the atmosphere was again something to be experienced. Surprisingly, with representatives from Australia, Japan, China, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, India, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Lebanon, Peru, Brazil, USA and Mexico, most teams were actually from outside Europe.

12 Another early start (6am local time, 5am UK time) on the Friday meant plenty of time for breakfast and showers before carrying on with our preparations before the opening ceremony and the start of the competitions and presentations. At one point we thought that we would be the first team into the opening ceremony but that was only because the teams from the United States had missed the call to line up. We did, however, lead out the British contingent (which consisted of us and 3 public schools). Over the next two days, the boys faced numerous interviews and had to give several presentations, as well as continuing to work on the programming of the robot and interacting with the students and coaches from around the world. The temperatures were very high and everyone was drinking water continuously. In the main arena, entry to the ceremonies was only possible on production of a full bottle of water! The first day of competition ended with a Friendship Evening consisting of performances by members of teams from across the world. We had had a good day with our robot giving us our best ever performance to date. However, apart from some complimentary comments from some judges we had no idea of placing. The last day also started early. Tensions were running high as we knew we only had one more attempt with the robot and one more timed interview to go. Just after lunch we joined all the rest of the teams in watching the grand final of the robot performance. With some very sophisticated robots capable of gaining maximum points from the mission field, it was a joy to watch. It also served as a timely reminder that we still have a long way to go. With so many teams of such high quality and of far greater experience, we were not too disappointed to not gain any awards this time. We know that we didn t come last and are determined to get there again and to give it another shot next year. The team has gelled so well and learnt so many new skills and more importantly appreciated how much more they have to learn that hopefully next year I will be able to write of greater success again. Spurred on by our success we have started several more teams from across Year 7, 8 & 9 and are hoping to enter 3 teams in the regional final this year. To that end I would like to make an appeal. The theme this year is Food Factor and is related to food hygiene and safety. We are interested in making contacts with people who work in the food and food safety related industries/business for help with our projects. We are always looking out for sponsorship, which could be in kind or services rather than money e.g. in producing t-shirts or display boards. Additionally, if you have any old LEGO Technic or Bionicle pieces (not regular LEGO) at home that isn t wanted anymore we will happily take it as the pieces are useful for building mechanisms and attachments. If you can help in any way, however small, then please get in touch.

13 Team Coaches: Mr A Pugh Mr D Challoner apugh@nks.kent.sch.uk dchalloner@nks,kent.sch.uk Music Department Another Award!! Two of our ensembles were chosen to appear in the finals of the 2011 National Festival of Music for Youth held in Birmingham. The barbershop group Short Back & Sides performed on Wednesday 6 th July and delighted audiences with their polished professional sound, and received comments such as...with skill and sensitivity... and...very well controlled... They did not win an award on this occasion, but greatly enjoyed the experience of being one of the best singing groups in the country. For the NKS Jazz Quartet the outcome was different. They received the TES Jazz Award for their fine performance. Comments from their feedback included...beautiful piano introduction..., an excellent performance... and...superbly articulated soprano sax solo... The quartet were delighted to have been singled out for such praise in the finals of this National Festival. Does the School s Prom beckon??? Our Summer Concert displayed the huge variety of talent at NKS, and the very high standard of musicianship on display from all year groups demonstrates the on-going strength of the department. Confident solo performances by Thomas Bishop (y7) on violin, George Hoffman (y7) on piano and Lloyd Allen (y8) on the piano delighted the audience. The other larger groups included the String Group and Ukulele Ensemble (both directed by Miss Fox), the Windband impressing us with The Fairest of the Fair and The Great Escape. The spectacular debut performance by the drum line was visually & musically impressive, and there were excellent contributions by the jazz players, Benet Ledner, the Sax Ensemble & the Brass Group. Our out-of school jazz performances have included the Tenterden Tentertainment Festival, the Hythe Festival, the Egerton Festival and numerous private functions. Our Jazz Evening on 16 th July was a superb occasion, showing off the fantastic talent of our students. The concert was sold out and visitors had a great time - the smiling faces said it all! Finally, congratulations to all who have had success in practical exams this term, including George Hoffman Grade IV and Thomas Bishop grade V both gained distinctions. Well done to all for maintaining a busy schedule during the exam term, and thank you for your continuing support for all of our activities. Physical Education This term has been an exciting and busy one. Within lessons over the last couple of months pupils have participated in Athletics, Cricket and Tennis. Extra-curricular activities have been full on since the Easter holidays. Our Sports Day before May half term was a success with some wonderful performances from the pupils. The overall house winners were Apps who scored and impressive 572 points. The individual year group winners were; Year 7 = Apps Year 9 = Apps Year 8 = Burra Year 10 = Apps

14 The best individual achievement went to Michael Grella in Year 8, who beat a school record in the 1500m event that had stood for over 30 years. The individual Athlete of the Year Awards went to; Year 7 = Alex Petit Year 9 = Tim Williams Year 8 = Luke Busumbru Year 10 = Ben Cox I would like to thank all the staff who helped to make this day a special one and the Julie Rose Stadium for allowing us to use their facilities and give the pupils the experience of performing in a stadium. A special mention goes to Thomas Williams from 11A who competed in the English Schools Athletics Championships in Gateshead in early July, representing Kent Schools in the 400m Hurdles. The Tennis season was a great success this year, with Year 7-10s competing in the Kent Aegon leagues as well as the Kent Doubles Championships in Bromley. Our Year 8 s won the Kent Division 2 league. The Year 9s were runners up in the Kent Cup, losing to Eltham College in the final after beating Rainham Mark, Harvey Grammar and Judd School to reach the final. James Carlton and Sam Barkaway who represented the Year 9 team, also represented the Year 10 A team who were also Kent runners up in the Aegon league, narrowly losing to Sevenoaks School in the final. Their impressive results included wins over Oakwood Park Grammar, Langley Park and Harvey Grammar. The cricket season was unfortunately affected by the poor weather, meaning fewer fixtures. However, there were fixtures v Simon Langton, Harvey Grammar and Angley School. The Year 10s had an impressive run in the Kent plate competition, reaching the semi finals but losing to Kings Canterbury in the event. We hope to have many more cricket fixtures next season at both junior and 1 st XI level. When the pupils return in September, their lessons will focus on Football (games) and Badminton or Gym (PE), depending on the year group they are in. For Football, pupils are expected to wear their blue games kit, football boots and shin pads. Adam Leonard Head of Physical Education Try Angle Awards Matt Balne in Year 11 was nominated for an award in the category volunteering and service to the community in Ashford, due to all the hard work he has put in with raising money in aid of CLIC Sargent. There were over 300 nominations across all the categories so it was quite an achievement just to make it to the final 3. Mrs Kenmir attended the awards with Matt and his parents and they were all absolutely thrilled when Matt was announced as the winner in his category. Congratulations, Matt!

15 Year 6 Induction Our Year 6 (soon to be Year 7) students had a superb time during their Induction Days on Wednesday and Thursday this week. Speaking to a number of students over those two days, they loved the variety of subjects taught and were keen to talk about their favourite ones; they massively appreciated the support of the Sixth Form prefects in guiding them through their days; and they are really looking forward to joining the school in September. The parents' evening was considered to be professionally presented and all involved commented that the atmosphere was really relaxed and positive. Speaking to a number of parents on that evening, they were thrilled that their sons had managed to get a place at this school; they were impressed with our Year 7 speakers and our School Captain's speech; they felt well informed and thought that their sons had already made a good start in settling in. They particularly appreciated the care given by form tutors during the two Induction Days and student support managers who visited their sons at their primary schools in the weeks beforehand. They were also very interested to hear about the role of our Inclusion Manager who focuses on supporting all groups of students to achieve their full potential, ably supported by our team of LSAs. Mr Hall was particularly impressed with the number of students showing an interest in Music, and the FONKS were delighted to see a number of new parents signing up. A massive THANK YOU to all those who were involved - subject teachers, student support managers, LSAs, form tutors, the FONKS, and in particular David Frost, Corinne Rand and Richard Hoyte! Finance Locker Payments: From September 2011 all lockers will require a 5 deposit. Free School Meals: If you have children under 19 years of age and in full-time education, you may be able to get free school meals for them. To be eligible for free school meals the pupil must be attending a state-maintained school or receiving alternative education approved by Kent County Council and the pupil's family must be in receipt of one of the following benefits. Please provide the relevant proof of identity, as detailed below: Income Support Income Based Jobseekers Allowance Child Tax Credit (not including Working Tax Credit): If the household income is below 16,190 ( 15,860 from 1st April 2011) Guaranteed Element of State Pension Credit Asylum Seekers: Proof of support under part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act An Income-related Employment and Support Allowance We do accept bank or building society statements as they show which benefit is being received. If you think you may be entitled to free school meals, please request a form from the school or from Kent Student Awards. Alternatively, please download and print-off the Free School Meals form (PDF, 93k).

16 Trip Payments: The school now offers the facility to pay online with debit or credit cards for any trip or activity. It is important for deposits to be paid promptly to ensure a place on the trip as spaced can be limited. EHIC card (European Health Insurance Card): Please note that this card is free of charge, and can be obtained by telephoning or going online at School Fund Contribution: You can now use the parent pay facility for this. Whilst we appreciate the current economic climate is affecting all households, we are very grateful for your generous donations each year. The School Fund is used solely for the benefit of funding student activities and facilities. Internet Payments: We hope parents are finding this service useful. Most trips are available for you to pay instalments once the trip deposit has been made and your child has been confirmed on the trip School Badges: We now have school badges available for blazers, the can be purchased from Student Reception for 2.50 each. School Uniform: School uniform can be ordered online from Lettings: CHARGES FOR LETTING SCHOOL PREMISES Main School Effective from 01 June 2011 per hour Main School Hall Monday to Saturday First two hours Additional Hours Main School Hall Sunday First two hours Additional Hours Gymnasium Monday to Saturday First two hours Additional Hours Gymnasium Sunday First two hours Additional Hours Atrium Monday to Saturday First two hours Additional Hours Atrium Sunday First two hours Additional Hours Classrooms Monday to Saturday First two hours 65.00

17 Additional Hours Classrooms Sunday First two hours Additional hours Heating per hour Piano One off payment These charges are exclusive of VAT Please apply for multiple facility charges. Whole weekend price on application Fraser Building per hour Sports Hall Monday Friday: First four hours Sports Hall Monday Friday :Additional hours Saturday & Sunday Drama Room First two hours Additional hours Playing Field Tennis Courts Price on application Price on Application A guide to room sizes - please note all measurements are approximate. Main School Hall Gymnasium Sports Hall Drama Room Length x Width 17M x 12M 11M x 12M 35.8M x 18M 10M x 8M If you are interested in hiring any of the school facilities, please contact Mrs. S. Burberry on ext 202. Canteen Payments: Please note, students either need a card (with money credited on it), or money to purchase food from the canteen. Keep Kids Safe: We have been using Keep Kids Safe more and more this term to keep parents up to date on important announcements/events from school. Messages are sent out via text and and so it is very important that we have mobile phone and details for all pupil contacts. The aim of this service is to improve communication and operate more cost-effectively. If you are not receiving the messages can you please information@nks.kent.sch.uk with your and mobile number details, with your son s name and form. Contact Details: Please can you make sure that you have the correct contact numbers for the school. We have had a lot of calls lately from a lady who keeps getting early morning phone calls from parents of our students. The school telephone number is if you would like to the school, please use information@nks.kent.sch.uk

18 Term Dates for the academic year 2011/12: THE NORTON KNATCHBULL SCHOOL 1 st September 2011 INSET DAY 2 nd September 2011 INSET DAY 5 th September 2011 Students Return to School 21 st October 2011 Last day of Term HALF TERM 24 th OCTOBER 2011 TO 28 th OCTOBER th November 2011 INSET DAY 16 th December 2011 Last Day of Term CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS 19 th DECEMBER 2011 TO 3 rd JANUARY th January 2012 Students Return to School 10 th February 2012 Last Day of Term HALF TERM 13 th FEBRUARY 2012 TO 17 th FEBRUARY th February 2012 INSET DAY 21 st February 2012 Students Return to School 30 th March 2012 Last Day of Term EASTER HOLIDAYS 2 nd APRIL 2012 TO 13 th APRIL th April 2012 Students Return to School 7 th May 2012 MAY DAY Students not in School 8 th May 2012 INSET DAY 1 st June 2012 Last Day of Term HALF TERM 4th JUNE 2012 TO 8 th JUNE th June 2012 Students Return to School 20 th July 2012 Last Day of Term (Students) SUMMER HOLIDAYS 23 rd JULY 2012 TO 3 rd SEPTEMBER 2012

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