Newsletter

This half term, our enthusiastic young readers have been actively engaging with the Accelerated Reader programme during their dedicated reading lessons in the school library. The Accelerated Reader programme encourages students to choose books at their individual reading levels, allowing them to progress at their own pace while developing their comprehension skills. This term, our Year 7 students have not only embraced the Accelerated Reader programme but have also taken the initiative to bring the magic of reading home. Each student has received a Book Buzz book, carefully selected to their interests. The students' interest and curiosity sparked by these books have been noticeable, contributing to a lively atmosphere of literary enthusiasm among our young readers. The school library has been a hub of activity, and we are delighted to announce that over 200 books have been taken out of the library this half term by Year 7 alone. We encourage everyone to continue nurturing and celebrating this passion for literature as it plays a vital role in shaping the intellectual and creative development of our young minds.

Happy reading!

Our Year 7 girls football team played a game against a great Landau Forte team. They played brilliantly, showed great sportsmanship and tried incredibly hard. For some of the girls it was their first ever football match and they had a great time!!

Well done girls!

 

Miss J Kingham - Head of Year 7

Year 8 students have made a positive start to 2024. Since January, the year group have ended each week with an impressive 90%+ positive ClassCharts ratio.

Curriculum: A snapshot of what your children have been learning.

In Technology students have worked on some fabulous projects; making pendants through the discipline of pewter casting with Mrs Pike and Mrs Mariott, soldering with Ms Salimy and I have witnessed the creation of some excellent main courses and desserts led by Mrs Fowlds in Food Technology. Some Year 8 students have started Computer Science lessons, and we welcome Mr Williams to the Technology team.

In Music, Mr Turner has been delighted with the Year 8 groups who have been learning to play the ukulele. Students have demonstrated tenacity whilst learning the chords and riffs to Best Day of My Life by American Authors.

English lessons have focused on the text A Long Walk to Water, a novel based on the true story of the Lost Boys of Sudan. Student responses have shown curiosity, embracing the opportunity to build an understanding of this complex narrative.

The Maths department started off the half term with fractions, decimals and percentages developing their skills further from the previous half term and work in Year 7.

In the last few weeks topics have included shape, space and measures. Students were really engaged and have been successful in developing their ability to find lengths, areas and volumes of different types of shape. Staff report they have tackled some really challenging problem solving tasks and applied their new knowledge in a range of contexts. 1610 positive points given to Year 8 in Maths for this half term!

The Religious Studies department have been studying Christian beliefs. Miss Barnett reports on how well students tackled the assessment and all have worked hard on improving their knowledge of Jesus, working co-operatively in groups and using their knowledge to look at how beliefs apply in the modern day through case studies such as Anthony Walker and Corrie Ten Boom.

Assemblies and Tutor Time:

Students have had a weekly focus in their morning tutor time and assemblies. The topics have included World Religions Day, Holocaust Memorial Day and Safer Internet Day. Students have really engaged with the activities provided and led by the tutor team. Year 8 conduct in assemblies is impeccable.

Student Council

Form reps have been tasked with canvassing student opinions around rewards and each form rep has been involved in presenting a variety of options and leading their tutor groups in a discussion and final vote. The reps have presented the information clearly and confidently – well done!

Uniform and equipment

A big thank you to parents and carers for your support in ensuring your children are in full school uniform. We look forward to welcoming them back to school smartly dressed and with their essential equipment, ready to learn.

Miss K Briggs

Year 9 Intent:  Kind, Confident, Aspirational

Following on from the Christmas break, year 9 had a fantastic first week back accumulating the most positives in a week so far this year. As the half term has progressed there has been a wide range of work completed and tutor time has seen varied work around different themes.

Kindness

In the last week of term, we have focussed on Kindness and the random act of kindness day. This has involved activities in form time and an assembly on Wednesday. I have now set the challenge to year 9 to see who can gain the most positives for kindness over the coming weeks. The slogan being used this year is “make kindness the norm”. The message is key to the year 9 students as part of year group intent and part of the wider school community with the school's focus “Work Hard Be Kind”. I am hoping these messages and acts of kindness will see lots of students achieve even more into the next half term.

Personal Development

Over the course of this term the year 9s have been focussing on a series of events in their Personal Development lessons and during tutor time in a morning. Within Personal Development lessons there has been a focus upon multiculturalism along with other topics which has led to some great discussions and work in these sessions. Tutor time has been great this term and the focus each week has covered a variety of subject areas, from world religion day to Holocaust memorial, internet safety and Kindness. The sessions on kindness in the last week of term have led to year 9 students being set a challenge to see who can gain the most kindness positives over comings weeks. I am very much looking forward to the next half term as our focus moves on to GCSE options.

Tech

Over the course of the last term there has been some wonderful work completed in tech. In the last half term in food tech there has been some great examples of mac and cheese, Swiss rolls and scones. Students have also worked hard to produce a wooden box as part of a project. I am really looking forward to seeing what the students produce over the coming terms. Tech have also hosted a cake sale which received fantastic support from our year group.

Sport

This half term has seen a number of students help the PE department with refereeing some matches for the younger year groups in tournaments. This has been a great help, and it has been a fantastic to see year 9s supporting younger years in school as well as developing their own refereeing skills.

Attendance

Attendance is a vital part of school life and several students have achieved a brilliant attendance this term which is fantastic. It would be brilliant if even more students could achieve this next half term. Below is an outline of the importance of attendance and what missing days at school can mean.   

Finally have a restful break and enjoy the half term break, and I look forward to seeing all students on Monday 26th February

Mr A Wildey

It has been a remarkably busy half term for Year 10, and I have been so proud of their efforts over the last few weeks and the commitment they have shown!

In January and February, students were able to participate in 3 workshops with a focus on careers. On January 15th and 23rd, groups of year 10s worked with the logistics company, DHL. They participated in workshops, learning through individual and team-based activities, the transferrable skills needed for the workplace, particularly around creating a CV.

On Wednesday 14th February, Kirk Hallam was visited by a team from the Army. On this occasion, students focussed on STEM activities and in particular Cyber Security and Telecommunications. Workshops were delivered by serving soldiers from the Royal Armoured Corps. Mrs Cartwright, who organised the event and supervised the Year 10s was incredibly complimentary, commenting that the behaviour of all students was ‘impeccable’ and that they were ‘fully engaged’ throughout.

This focus on students’ next steps will continue into next half term, as Personal Development lessons will move on to careers education.

There has also been further success for the Year 10 boys’ football team!

Match report from Mr Wildey:

Last week was their latest football fixture at home against Ilkeston School. There was a lot of anticipation around the match following on from the 5-1 victory against Saint John. There was a great team performance with all the students involved playing a part in the victory. A great end to the first half saw a 2-0 half time score line after some great individual play from the front line. Into the second half Ilkeston offered little in response. The chances continued to come and 2 more goals in the second half saw a comfortable 4-0 win.  Well done to all involved!

Have a restful break; I look forward to seeing you all following the half term holiday.

Miss Thornhill

This term was another busy one in the Sixth Form.

With the last of the university applications going off through UCAS at the end of January for our Year 13s the end of their time with us is beginning to feel real for many of them. Whilst the prospect of university brings excitement it has also meant the acceptance that the A-Level exams are getting ever closer and that the hard work really begins now. Our science subjects are finishing the last of their Core Practicals with Year 13 which form the practical endorsement that goes alongside the academic exams for A-Levels in Physics, Chemistry and Biology.

In Year 12 we are now beginning to think about their future destinations. Any year 12 students who are intending on applying for Oxbridge, Medicine, Dentistry or Veterinary medicine should book a 1-1 meeting for themselves and their parent’s with Dr Bennison at the earliest opportunity as these will require an earlier UCAS application than most university courses.

During this half term we held a successful taster morning for our internal Year 11 students where they got to try out sessions in a range of subjects. We were really impressed to see some of our Year 11s revising in their free periods in the Sixth Form Café; this is exactly the study habits that our most successful students demonstrate and it is promising that some students starting with us in September are already doing this.

We were lucky to have Derbyshire Fire Service’s Ilkeston Blue Watch come to the Sixth Form alongside the police to talk about the dangers present when driving and to perform a simulated road traffic collision. It surprised many of us how long it took to get access to the car and was an incredibly hard hitting reminder to our young drivers of the importance of being safe on the roads.

In the last week of term we also had a representative from SV2 (https://www.sv2.org.uk) come and run some workshops with all of our students on the topic of consent. SV2 are a Derbyshire based charity working to support victims of Sexual Violence.

Finally, this term the Sixth Form Café have been trialling a new menu with more grab-and-go options (and some fantastic new cakes such as Viennese Whirls). Please pass any comments about this on to the Sixth Form Team and the staff in the café.

As we begin the next term our Year 13s will be focussed on preparing for their exams – attendance is absolutely vital for their success. All our Sixth Form students will be striving for 100% attendance.

Dr T Bennison - Head of Sixth Form

• Monday 26th February 2024 - Start of Spring Half Term 2
• Monday 26th February 2024 - Year 9 Consent Workshops
• Tuesday 27th February 2024 - PM Year 10 Navy Cooking Workshop
• Thursday 29th February 2024 - Parents coffee morning - relational practice 
• Monday 4th March 2024 - Year 9 Meningitis ACWY and Diphtheria, Tetanus & Polio immunisations
• Tuesday 5th March 2024 - Careers Fair  Lakeside Hall
• Wednesday 6th March 2024 - Year 11 Food Exam
• Thursday 7th March 2024 - Year 12 parents' evening 
• Monday 11t March - Year 11 and 13 mock exam week begins 
• Tuesday 12th March 2024 - Year 5 and 6 Rugby Mega Fest
• Wednesday 13th March 2024 - Year 12 Talk the Talk workshops
• Wednesday 13th March 2024 - The Kirk Hallam Way (Relational Practice) Parents' Evening event
• Thursday 14th March 2024 - Year 9 Options Launch to Parents 
• Tuesday 19th March 2024 - Ladywood Year 5 visit 
• Thursday 21st March 2024 - Parents coffee morning - Exam Stress Workshops
• Thursday 21st March 2024 - Year 9 parents' evening
• Tuesday 26th March 2024 - Stanley St Andrew's Year 5 visit 
• Wednesday 27th March 2024 - Year 11 parents' evening 2
• Thursday 28th March 2024 - End of Spring Half Term 1 
• Friday 29th March 2024 - Good Friday

Students return to school on Monday 15th April 2024.

 

(Events correct as of date of publication but may be added or amended - please check the calendar on our school website at Calendar | Kirk Hallam Community Academy (kirkhallamacademy.co.uk) )

This term, we have been focussing on the character trait of respect. Important topics have been covered recently including crime, diversity, racism and extremism. Students have handled the topics in a respectful manner and learning about these key topics will support them to better prepared to deal with situations in and out of school.

We have also celebrated key themes during tutor time and assemblies. This has included World Religion Day, Holocaust Memorial Day, LGBT+ History Month, Safer Internet Day and Acts of Kindness.  

Our focus for all year groups in the lead up to Easter will be around Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance. Please see below topics to be covered:

• Year 7: Self Growth
• Year 8: About the Workplace
• Year 9: Choosing GCSE Options
• Year 10: Work Experience preparation
• Year 11: Next steps

We will also be having our Annual Careers Fair on Tuesday 5th March during National Careers Week where students will have access to a range of employers and education providers. This will help our students to make well informed decisions around their futures.