Headteacher's Weekly Update 37 - Friday 3rd July 2026

Dear Parents and Carers

I hope this letter finds you and your families well. As we approach the final two weeks of another successful academic year, a Friday update from me as always.

Whole-school attendance for the week 22nd - 26th June 2026 was 88%, undoubtedly affected by the exceptionally hot weather experienced across London. Nevertheless, every day in school matters and we thank families for continuing to support strong attendance.

Attendance by Year group:

• Year 7 89.77%

• Year 8 87.99%

• Year 9 89.38%

• Year 10 86.00%

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The exceptionally warm weather looks set to continue into next week, coinciding with our Sports Days and Activities Week. The safety and wellbeing of our students and staff will remain our priority throughout. We will continue to monitor the weather closely and remain agile should forecasts change or further weather warnings be issued by the Met Office.

On Wednesday, Years 7 and 8 will take part in Sports Day on site. Outdoor events will take place as early as possible during the day before temperatures reach their highest, with students finishing at lunchtime. Years 9 and 10 will be attending Nuclear Races where shaded areas are available throughout the day. Please ensure your child brings a refillable water bottle, has sunscreen applied before leaving home, brings additional sunscreen if required and wears a hat or cap.

On Thursday, Years 9 and 10 will attend the Pool and Track, with events taking place during the cooler part of the day before students finish at lunchtime. Year 7 will be enjoying their trip to Southend where, hopefully, they will benefit from a welcome sea breeze and Year 8 will be attending Nuclear Races. Lunch will be provided for all students entitled to Free School Meals attending activities across Wednesday and Thursday. As always, we will continue to monitor the forecast and have contingency plans in place should temperatures increase further.

Occasionally, families contact us regarding incidents that take place outside school where our students have unfortunately been the victims of unacceptable behaviour by members of the public who have no connection to Kelmscott.  Whilst we will always do everything we can to support our students pastorally, it is important that incidents of this nature are reported to the police in the first instance, particularly where there has been threatening, intimidating or criminal behaviour. The police are best placed to investigate, gather evidence and take any necessary action.  Once you have contacted the police, please do let the school know. We are unable to help investigate incidents that occur away from school and do not involve members of our community, but we can ensure that appropriate pastoral support is provided, check in with your child during the school day and, where appropriate, work alongside other agencies to help keep them safe.

The wellbeing of our students remains our priority, and we encourage families to report any concerns so that we can provide support wherever possible.

Please could I ask parents and carers to check that their child leaves home each morning wearing their school lanyard. Lanyards remain an important part of our safeguarding procedures and your support with this small daily routine is greatly appreciated.

Students in Years 7, 8 and 9 are invited to complete our Smartphone and Social Media Survey, which has been sent to their school Gmail accounts.  The survey takes no more than five minutes to complete, and all responses are anonymous. Can students please complete the survey after school or over the weekend.  Thank you for supporting us with this important piece of student voice work.

A reminder that Monday is an INSET Day and the school will therefore be closed to students. With the INSET Day and Activities Week taking place, it will be a shorter week than usual.

Looking slightly further ahead, Culture Day will take place on Wednesday 16th July and is always one of the highlights of our school calendar. Students are welcome to wear face paint, wear the colours or traditional dress of their culture or heritage, wear a national flag (although this should not be waved inside the building or during lessons) and wear an international football shirt representing a country for example England, France or Nigeria. Club football shirts should not be worn. There will also be a range of exciting activities taking place at break and lunchtime and we look forward to sharing more details with students next week.

This week we were delighted to welcome our new Year 6 students to Kelmscott for their Transition Day. It was wonderful to meet the newest members of our school community and to see how quickly they embraced life at secondary school. Our newly appointed Head of Year 7, Mr Hassan, made an excellent start in post and led the day superbly. We know our current students will make our new Year 7 cohort feel incredibly welcome when they join us in September.

Families joining us in Year 7 will also benefit from our revised school uniform following the recent changes to national guidance on branded items. From September, our compulsory branded items for new Year 7 students will be a blazer featuring an updated simplified Kelmscott logo, a navy quarter-zip PE top and navy tracksuit bottoms. Branded PE shorts and PE T-shirts will become optional, with plain navy alternatives equally acceptable. We believe these changes create a cleaner, more consistent school identity whilst remaining fully compliant with the new national guidance. Existing students do not need to replace any part of their current uniform and may continue wearing their current uniform as normal. We are also exploring the possibility of students wearing their PE kit on PE days. Discussions are ongoing and we will update families once a final decision has been made.

It was a pleasure to launch the Duke of Edinburgh's Award to our current Year 9 families yesterday. The programme is an exciting addition to our personal development programme, providing students with opportunities to develop resilience, leadership, teamwork, volunteering skills and a spirit of adventure through outdoor education.  We were delighted to welcome almost sixty families to our Parents' Information Evening and thank everyone who attended for their enthusiasm and support. My thanks also go to Mr Lowe and Ms Kelly, who will lead the programme. We are incredibly excited to see our first cohort begin their Duke of Edinburgh journey in September.

For parents and carers who were unable to attend, the presentation slides are included here. We are currently finalising the registration process and will send full enrolment details and links to families as soon as registration opens.

As we enter the final two weeks of term, we have an exciting programme of sporting events ahead, including our annual Sports Day(s).  Today, sixty students are proudly representing Kelmscott at the Borough Athletics Championships. We wish every one of them the very best of luck and look forward to sharing their achievements in next week's update to families.

Congratulations also to everyone who took part in this year's Year 9 Inter-Form Football Tournament. The competition was played in a fantastic spirit, with excellent teamwork, determination and sportsmanship on display throughout - more details about this in next week's update.

Finally, a special thank you to our Year 10 Sports Leaders, who continue to provide outstanding support at sporting events both within Kelmscott and across our local primary schools. They are exceptional ambassadors for our school, and we are very proud of the leadership and enthusiasm they demonstrate.

Congratulations also to the following students on successfully passing the RSPH Level 1 Award in Health Improvement.  Lily Stewart 10O, Tobia Lullo 9M, Jasmine Jeffery 9K, Tilly Kimber 10L, Dima Shehab 10O, Riley Clapperton 9T and Olive Crawford 9T.

On Monday, twenty Year 10 students from our GCSE Design & Technology and GCSE Engineering courses had the unique opportunity to take part in a Business and Engineering/Design & Technology workshop led by industry professionals from LMAC. Through practical, hands-on activities, students explored a range of exciting career pathways while developing industry-standard skills, including creating 3D models, wiring electrical circuits, installing conduits, and carrying out continuity and polarity testing. The workshop gave students valuable insight into career pathways and the skills required within these sectors. It was fantastic to see our students apply their knowledge and creativity by developing 3D models and tackling real-world scenarios, bringing their learning to life in an engaging and practical way. Our thanks to Ms Ahmet for organising this opportunity.

Also on Monday, a group of Year 9 and Year 10 Multilingual Learners MLL, accompanied by their parents and carers, visited Sir George Monoux College and High School. During the visit, attendees explored the wide range of courses, pathways and support available to multilingual learners. They also toured the college, met staff and gained a clearer understanding of how the college helps young people achieve their educational and career goals.  The visit was a fantastic experience and highly beneficial for both learners and their families. It gave everyone a deeper insight into what the college offers and encouraged students to feel confident about their future. We are very grateful to the staff at George Monoux for their warm welcome and informative presentations, which made the visit engaging, enjoyable and inspiring.

Today, Mr Yilmaz took a small group of our Year 8 students  to the Waltham Forest Archives as part of an exciting local history research project. Students are exploring the changing landscape of Markhouse Road and the lives of notable Walthamstow residents, with the aim of presenting their findings to the school community next academic year.  During their visit, students were given the rare opportunity to access a remarkable archive of more than 80,000 historical images, many of which are not available to the general public. We look forward to discovering the fascinating stories they uncover and gaining a deeper appreciation of the rich history of our local community.

We saw a comb in school this week designed to resemble a butterfly knife. Whilst we appreciate these are novelty items, they can understandably cause concern and present an unnecessary health and safety risk. We therefore ask that students do not bring any metal combs into school. Standard plastic combs remain perfectly acceptable.

As I mentioned in last week's update to families, Creative Engagement Services, who many of you will know through the Media Bus that has visited various locations across Waltham Forest, are offering a range of free youth clubs throughout the summer. Sessions take place on Mondays at Big Penny Social, Tuesdays at Wood Street Library and Thursdays at Lea Bridge Road Library, offering activities including visual arts, fashion, gaming, podcasting, DJing and music production alongside mentoring and refreshments. I would encourage students looking for something creative to do over the summer to take advantage of these excellent opportunities.

Congratulations to all of this week's reward winners for the week  22nd - 26th June 2026. A special mention goes to Ella De Lissandri in 8E, who currently leads the entire school with a very good 39 reward points. An outstanding achievement.

Rewards Points winners:

• Year 7, Halima Zafar in 7M with 37 points

• Year 8, Ella De Lissandri in 8E with 39 points

• Year 9, Cianna Blenman-Hartley in 9K with 26 points

• Year 10, Latoya Dah in 10S with 33 points.

  
  

As always, thank you for your continued support. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and I look forward to welcoming students back on Tuesday for the penultimate week of term at Kelmscott.

With every good wish,

Mr Sam Jones 

Headteacher