I hope this letter finds you and your families well, a Friday update for you as always.
Students and staff enjoyed a typically busy week here in school. A mixed group (in terms of year
group) of students visited the Fortune Theatre to watch Woman in Black. They represented the
school exceptionally well, and thoroughly enjoyed the play and experience as a whole.
We also welcomed some Year 4 students from Barncroft Primary School, to take part in some Science lessons, learning about chick hatching. Excitingly, the chicks pecked their way out and hatched yesterday. Now that they have dried off and fluffed up, they look exceptionally cute. Our students have had the opportunity to have a look too, which has been the cause of much excitement.
Thirty Year 8 students took part in the UKMT Junior Maths Challenge this week. This was an
opportunity to show their mathematical problem solving skills, competing against other schools. The
students enjoyed the challenge and were happy to successfully represent the school. The UKMT is a
nationwide maths competition and we hope to participate on a yearly basis.
On Wednesday this week, I fasted, as I did last year, in support of our Muslim students here at
school. Again, I found the process to be a challenging yet rewarding one. It always prompts a good reaction from our students and led to dozens and dozens of really interesting conversations, about the importance of this practice for our students, how families come together to break their fast, and the symbolism it holds. A number of other non-Muslim, Kelmscott staff joined me this year, which was nice.
On Thursday Microsoft came into school to work with a group of Year 7 and 8 students. The
students had great fun learning about coding and they were able to program a Microbit computer.
Accompanying my letter this week, is one from the UK Health Security Agency regarding increased
cases of chickenpox and scarlet fever in children. Please take some time to read this important
information.
This week we have added text book sales to our repertoire of services online, via the MyEd app. If
you have a child in Year 9 or 10, please check the app for the English texts they are required to
purchase, by tapping the Payment button in the Student section of MyEd, then Payments to Pay.
Once the book has been purchased, your child may collect it during their English lesson.
A reminder that we are still running a food bank in school. If families could benefit from a discreetly
delivered parcel, please get in contact with us in confidence at foodbank@kelmscott.waltham.sch.uk If you would like to make any food or hygiene item donations please drop these in at reception; for cash donations please use the following link: https://donatemyschool.com/kelmscottschool
According to my sources, it looks likely that Eid will fall on the Bank Holiday Monday, the 2nd May, this year. I hope families have a wonderful time celebrating with their nearest and dearest. We look forward to welcoming all students back, at the usual time, on Tuesday 3rd May.
I talked about the possibility of running a hybrid Parents’ Evening for our last Parents’ Evening of the
year, for Year 8 families on Thursday 26th May. We very much like the concept of this, but don’t
have enough time to organise the logistical side, in time for the 26th May. As a result, we will be
having a ‘normal’ Parents’ Evening on that evening. We will continue to explore the possibility of a
hybrid model though, so we are in a position to potentially offer this next academic year. An
important part of this exploration will be canvassing the views of all of our families to see whether
there is a demand for both in-person appointments and phone/video appointments. Please keep an eye on the MyEd app in the coming weeks for more on this.
In last week’s letter, I suggested that families drop their children on the side roads off Markhouse
Road and Queens Road, now that the ANPR technology is in place in the Leisure Centre Car Park. I
have been reliably informed that fines are given out if cars, without permits, access some of those
roads. I am trying to get confirmation of which ones and will share those in due course, but please
do read the signs carefully in the roads close to school, to ensure you do not fall foul of this.
We were updated this week about a Waltham Forest man who has been charged for loitering around some WF primary and secondary schools, and approaching and propositioning school children. His bail conditions now prohibit him from coming anywhere near any schools in future. As always, I would urge families to impress upon your children the importance of not engaging with any strangers in the community, that approach them and try to engage them in conversation. I share this in the interests of transparency and hope it doesn’t alarm you overly.
We welcomed Heather Flinders, the Strategic Director of Families in Waltham Forest, into school
today. She enjoyed a tour around the school, popping in to many lessons. She was incredibly
impressed with the calm and purposeful atmosphere around school and the engagement of students
in their studies. We talked about some of the challenges we are facing as a school, including the
aforementioned Leisure Centre car park issues.
Finally, congratulations to Fira Ajmal in 9S who topped the rewards points charts last week, keep up the good work.
Yours sincerely
Mr Sam Jones
Headteacher